Note
The United Nations' inspectors have returned to Syria to resume their chemical weapons investigation. The stated purpose of their second mission, according to UN officials, is to complete the first mission. The first mission was cut short when the inspectors faced the prospect of Assad turning them into human shields if Obama had conducted a military strike. That original mission was to gather facts about whether chemical weapons were used and keep studiously quiet about whodunit. Indeed, the inspectors' first report confirms what everyone already knew - and Assad had admitted. There was such an attack. The absence of a named perpetrator in the report, however, gave the Syrians and the Russians deniability. Consequently, the Russians are continuing to refuse a Security Council resolution naming a Syrian villain. Round two is expected to repeat the he-said she-said performance. In the meantime, thousands more are dying by other hideous "conventional" means. But chemical weapons is all the rage, and other dead and dying have been relegated to a side-issue.