There are several news reports on attacks on hospitals in Syria, but the most current one speculates that the Syrians bombed the targets and gassed people with chlorine in Saraqed. The Syrians and Russians both deny doing either of those things. So what would they have us believe?
The Russians bombed hospitals before; then denied it; then bombed the same ones again just to be sure they were out of commission. That part is fairly difficult to deny since the Syrians do not fly the jets with Russian markings on them. We know where they came from, and where they returned. That is not very difficult to confirm in that limited airspace. We may also remember that the last time the Syrians did it, cruise missiles came down on them from US ships. The Russians made sure that won’t happen again by putting some ships of their own in that area. That was just a deterrent, but seems to have worked. Perhaps we could say the Syrians bombed the hospitals this time, though it is likely the Russians were helping them out in choosing targets. They chose to bomb hospitals, in spite of international conventions against it. Both of them are guilty in allowing it.
In 2015, an American C-130 gunship hit a hospital in Afghanistan and the world press was incensed. It pushed for criminal prosecutions of the US forces involved. Sixteen US military personnel were disciplined over that incident. Do we somehow think the Russians are different? The Syrians are different?
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