Fortunately for everyone involved - except for, perhaps, the death squads wreaking havoc on Syrian soil - such a dual approach is proving very difficult.

This is because the chemical attack was not the work of the Assad regime but of the death squads who have been killing and maiming innocent people for close to two years. Although the Western and Israeli imperialists are clearly always poised to take advantage of a false flag attack such as the use of a chemical weapon by the inappropriately named “rebels” to immediately be blamed on Assad, the openness with which the death squads have advertised their possession of and intent to use such weapons has proved to be a major hurdle in the attempt to create a successful campaign of public outcry against the Assad government. In short, the false narrative of Assad’s use of chemical weapons “against his own people” is so easily dispelled that the public relations push seems to have stalled, even if only for a brief time.