The Fox News published an opinion by Jonathan Schanzer that talks about the huge number of deaths caused by the regime's conventional weapons, and calls for finding a strategy that enables the United States and its allies to make it increasingly more difficult for Syria, Iran and Russia to operate on the battlefield.
The writer initiates his article by saying the US-led coalition strikes on Syria over the chemical attack launched by Assad's regime might be understood as a permission for the regime to kill civilians with conventional weapons.
"By firing 105 missiles at Syrian chemical weapons targets before dawn Saturday, the U.S., Britain and France sent a clear message to dictator Bashar Assad: they will not tolerate his regime’s use of toxic gas and other weapons of mass destruction against his own citizens. But it seems the tripartite alliance is prepared allow Assad to keep killing Syrians on massive scale using conventional weapons,
The death toll in Syria after seven years of war is more than 500,000 – and rising, he adds, and the fact that these deaths did not involve chemical weapons makes them no less tragic for their victims and surviving loved ones.
It’s hard to know exactly how many of the Syrian deaths have been caused by chemical weapons. But we know they represent a relatively small percentage. The Assad regime has killed far more Syrians through crude barrel bombs, mass executions, starvation and deprivation, and in other ways."
The writer then sheds the light on the Syrian-Iranian-Russian conventional war machine that is responsible for the overwhelming majority of the murders of innocent Syrians.
"On top of this," he says, "there have also been conventional military strikes conducted with and without the help of Assad’s allies – Iran and Russia. Both those nations have devoted significant resources to the war."
The writer says the U.S. policy of focusing only on stopping Assad’s chemical weapons attacks is a recipe for more misery, death and destruction. It’s also an abdication of American leadership.
"To be fair, the crisis in Syria is not of President Trump’s making. He inherited that disaster from President Obama. But keeping a narrow focus on the Islamic State and chemical weapons while ignoring the rest of the bloodshed is actually perpetuating President Obama’s horrendous policies," he then writes.
Finally he concludes saying that the US, France and UK acted morally and responsibly by striking Assad's chemical weapons program in Syria, but without a broader strategy, the US air strikes will send the wrong message: that US is not concerned about the vast majorities of mass atrocities that have become commonplace in Syria for the last seven years.