World View: 3 Dead, 79 Injured in Terrorist Attack on Chinese Railway Station


This morning’s key headlines from

  • Uighur terrorist explosion in Chinese railway station kills three
  • Syria’s al-Assad now freely uses chemical weapons with impunity
  • Syria still hasn’t surrendered tons of chemical weapons

Uighur terrorist explosion in Chinese railway station kills three

Three people were confirmed dead and 79 others were injured, includingfour seriously injured, in the terrorist attack Wednesday eveningat a railway station in Urumqi, capital of China’s northwest provinceXinjiang. Knife-wielding mobs slashed people at the exit of the SouthRailway Station of Urumqi and set off explosives. A similar attacktook place on March 1 at a railway station in southwestern China,killing 29 civilians and injuring another 143. Both attacks areassumed to have been perpetrated by Uighur separatists from Xinjiangprovince.

Turkic-speaking, usually Muslim Uighurs live in northwestern China inXinjiang province, which has been a source of activist violence andseparatist demands. China has responded with violent crackdowns andflooded the province with Han Chinese transplants, diluting theirpopulation, in an unsuccessful attempt to pacify the Uighurs.

The March 1 railway station attack occurred at the opening of the theannual meeting of the National People’s Congress, headed by China’snew president Xi Jinping. Wednesday’s railway station attack cameduring Xi’s first visit to Xinjiang since he became president. Afterthe attack, Xi said:

The battle to combat violence and terrorism will notallow even a moment of slackness, and decisive actions must betaken to resolutely suppress the terrorists’ rampantmomentum.

The problem of attacks in Xinjiang has been getting worse, according toanalysts, who say that the incidents are becoming more professionaland aimed at larger targets. Xi Jinping vowed to have a “strikefirst” approach to security. Xinhua and BBC

Syria’s al-Assad now freely uses chemical weapons with impunity

It appears Syria’s genocidal monster president Bashar al-Assad is nowusing chemical weapons – chlorine and ammonia – on an almost dailybasis. His helicopters drop large barrel bombs on the homes ofinnocent women and children. The barrel bombs contain explosives,screws, nails, and other shrapnel, plus canisters of chlorine andammonia. When chlorine is inhaled, it reacts with the moisture in thelungs, turning into hydrochloric acid that literally burns the targetto death from the inside out. On Wednesday, activists report that ahelicopter dropped two barrel bombs laden with gas on the town ofAl-Tamanah in the early hours of the morning, with several casualties.

This shows what happens when there’s no policeman: the criminals takeover and run everything. This is what’s happening in Chicago and,since President Obama took office, what’s happening in the world.

A couple of days ago, Obama was asked what the “Obama doctrine” is inforeign policy. He stumbled around for a while, and then gave anon-answer and blamed it on Fox News. It’s pretty clear that he hasno doctrine that he wants to talk about. Based on previousstatements, we can infer that his doctrine has two elements: (1) Lookat what President George W Bush did, and do the opposite. (2)Announce that you will not use military force, and then do not usemilitary force.

As I’ve said before, this is a complete reversal of the 1947Truman Doctrine, whichjustified military police actions because they could prevent a newworld war and because their costs in blood and money are tiny incomparison to massive costs of World War II. This was laterreaffirmed by President John Kennedy when he said, “Ask not what yourcountry can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

Let’s go back to 2003, and ask what would have happened if PresidentBush had followed the “Obama Doctrine” with respect to Iraq, whichmeans he would have said the following to Saddam Hussein: “We willnever use military action, even if you develop and use weapons of massdestruction (WMDs).” What would have happened then? (By the way,recall that Saddam was already targeted with sanctions, so moresanctions would not have mattered.)

Saddam Hussein would have gone full-speed ahead with his WMD program.Even if he delayed, Iran would ASSUME that he was going full-speedahead with his WMD program. Iran has already been victimized bySaddam’s WMDs in 1988, and they would not risk it happening again.Iran would have gone full-speed ahead with its own WMD program, and bythis time there would have been another major war between Iraq andIran, this time with full use of WMDs.

That’s what happens when the world’s policeman tells the crooks andthe thugs that they can commit any crimes they want and there will beno consequences.

Last year, Obama’s “red line” threat was that he would use cruisemissiles to destroy al-Assad’s air force. If he had gone ahead withthat threat, then al-Assad would not be using helicopters to deliverbarrel bombs laced with chemical weapons to innocent women andchildren. That’s what happens when there’s no policeman. Telegraph and Philadelphia Inquirer

Syria still hasn’t surrendered tons of chemical weapons

Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime was supposed to have surrendered allits chemical weapons by now, but it’s still holding on to 8% of itsdeclared stockpile of 1,300 tonnes of chemical weapons. Al-Assad lastyear agreed to give up his stockpiles of chemical weapons, butobviously he has no reason to comply with his agreement, since thereare no consequences for failing to do so. The National (UAE)

Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail