Does U.S. feel shame about Syria?

The U.S. representative to the United Nations, Samantha Power, gave an impassioned speech asking Russian and Syrian representatives whether they felt “any shame at all” for their actions in Aleppo, and whether there is “no execution of a child that gets under (their) skin?”

For Syrians, these statements were infuriating. Americans should be asked the same questions.

You, too, have blood on your hands.

Over the past few years, you have deceived us with your empty promises. From the first day of the 2011 revolution to the most recent breakdown of a life-saving evacuation effort, the killing of Syrians has been met with consistent U.S. inaction, or worse: American acquiescence to Russian aggression.

After Rwanda and then after Srebrenica, Americans said, “Never again.” Today, you can no longer rest on your hollow rhetoric celebrating freedom and equality. Today, as Syrians watching you glibly condemn a catastrophe that is partly of your own making, we ask whether you feel any shame at all for your inaction.

President Obama declared that if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons against his enemies, he’d be crossing a “red line.” Obama watched him cross it. Isn’t he ashamed? Isn’t he embarrassed that “strategic overseas interests” trumped his willingness to take any and all steps necessary to stop the wanton deaths of hundreds of thousands?

Does Obama and his spokespeople at the United Nations and beyond look in the mirror and think, “We encouraged the Syrian people to rise up, and then watched impassively as they were slaughtered for it”? Do they not feel cowardly for refusing to engage and confront Russian aggression beyond shallow public condemnations?

And does President-elect Donald Trump have no shame in his public affirmation of Russia as the United States’ strategic partner in Syria? The same Russia that has joined the Assad government in massacring the Syrian people. Is he not uncomfortable with stating publicly that the Syrian government is fighting Islamic State despite the evidence suggesting that Assad has actually facilitated the expansion and survival of the extremist group?

Next time U.S. leaders trumpet the American commitment to human rights, remember how far you have fallen.

In the early days you claimed to support our protests as legitimate expressions of the desire for change. But you supported us only with words, not actions, and now activists in Aleppo are sending their final goodbyes before they’re executed, forcibly displaced, raped, tortured, or killed in an airstrike.

The fall of Aleppo is only the beginning. Russia and the Assad government have a far more ambitious end goal: complete military victory at any cost. The atrocities committed in Aleppo will undoubtedly be followed by similar cleansings in other areas.

This is Obama’s legacy, one that Trump seems happy to continue. Is there nothing that can shame them? Are there no acts of barbarism against civilians, no execution of a child that gets under your skin?

This story was originally published December 29, 2016 at 5:02 AM with the headline "Does U.S. feel shame about Syria?."