Syrian 2013 Chemical Weapons Attack

2013 Syria chemical weapons attack

Try Assad in the ICC
According to Article 63 of the Rome Statute, which governs the ICC's operation, the court can't try anyone in absentia.

Saddam's use of chemical weapons
I agree that Bush Sr. was complicit in that blind eye turning to the Halabja chemical attack (yet another of many reasons to never put a Republican in the White House). To be fair to Bush Sr. though, we also didn't know for quite some time if it was Iraq or Iran that carried it out. By the time we did, Iraq had invaded Kuwait and the response and aftermath of that conflict, we eliminated Iraq's WMDs under Clinton and UN authority, after a military engagement that was also not a declared "war".

It is also worth noting that while Saddam Hussein was eventually hung for the Dujail Massacre, during that the trial hundreds of other crimes were in the queue to be brought forward, including the Halabja chemical attack.

But since he was executed for that earlier crime, the pending issue of putting him on trial for the Halabja chemical attack became moot.

"Red line" nontroversy
The August 20, 2012 press conference:

The Red line press conference.

Rebuttals
Any adult without an axe to grind and reads what was said in context can figure it out. He isn't 'denying' anything, he is correctly pointing out that the universal ban on the use of chemical weapons wasn't something he came up with. It was adopted by the United States, the world and even Syria itself long before President Obama started grade school.

When was line drawn?
When was the line drawn forbidding the use of chemical weapons under international law?

So the line was drawn against the use of chemical weapons in 1925.

Was Barack Obama alive in 1925?

Argument timeline
The world set the red line forbidding the use of chemical weapons in 1925 (which even your fellow traveler Schultz admits to)

The President repeats that red line in August 20, 2012.

The President points out that the red line was drawn in 1925 on September 4, 2013.

Howenica again lies about what the President said about the red line 4 hours ago on September 7, 2013.

Thread derailing
No, the subject is Boehner refusing to argue and support his own position to his caucus on military strikes on Syria for their violating the Geneva Conventions ban on the use of chemical weapons.