The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir

by Samantha Power

To those prepared to review the facts—a practice that had already begun its sharp decline around the world—Assad’s regime was clearly responsible. The Syrian government was widely known to have a sophisticated chemical weapons program. Only professionals had the know-how to mix the chemical agents, fill the munitions, and strike so many opposition neighborhoods in such quick succession. The rockets used in the Damascus gas attack were used regularly by the regime and had never been seen in the possession of the Syrian opposition. Tracers from the rockets indicated that they had been launched from regime territory. Our intercepted communications revealed a senior Syrian official discussing the regime’s responsibility for the attack.28 And, of course, not a single person in regime-held territory appeared to have been injured or killed. Put another way, a ragtag opposition would have had to acquire the chemical agents, the mixing expertise, and the surface-to-surface rockets capable of carrying sarin gas; then these opposition fighters would have had to move all of this across an impenetrable front line into regime territory so as to target their neighbors and family members back in the areas where they lived. Despite the plethora of hard evidence, most foreign ambassadors ducked the question of who had used chemical weapons.

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