A New Level of Depravity, Even for Bashar al-Assad

"For a world that too often seems impervious to the horrors of Syria’s civil war, the photos and videos from Tuesday’s chemical weapons attack, which killed dozens of civilians, bore witness to a new level of atrocity. People gasping for breath, turning blue, lying dead in the street — all victims of airstrikes apparently by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.It was the deadliest chemical attack in years in Syria, a new marker for a leader with a record of brutality dating to 2011, when he turned his weapons on peaceful protesters. A second attack on Tuesday hit a clinic treating the victims. Mr. Assad may think he can act with impunity now. After all, Russia, which intervened militarily in 2015 to save him from defeat by rebels, vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution in February that would have punished Syria for using chlorine-filled barrel bombs in 2014 and 2015."