© Yara Ismail
Independent Middle East Correspondent Robert Fisk in one of the miles of tunnels hacked beneath Douma by prisoners of Syrian rebels
This is the story of a town called Douma, a ravaged, stinking place of smashed apartment blocks -- and of an underground clinic whose images of suffering allowed three of the Western world's most powerful nations to bomb Syria last week. There's even a friendly doctor in a green coat who, when I track him down in the very same clinic, cheerfully tells me that the 'gas' videotape which horrified the world - despite all the doubters - is perfectly genuine.
War stories, however, have a habit of growing darker. For the same 58-year-old senior Syrian doctor then adds something profoundly uncomfortable: the patients, he says, were overcome not by gas but
by oxygen starvation in the rubbish-filled tunnels and basements in which they lived, on a night of wind and heavy shelling that stirred up a dust storm.
As Dr Assim Rahaibani announces this extraordinary conclusion, it is worth observing that he is by his own admission not an eye witness himself and, as he speaks good English,
he refers twice to the jihadi gunmen of Jaish el-Islam [the Army of Islam] in Douma as "terrorists" - the regime's word for their enemies, and a term used by many people across Syria. Am I hearing this right? Which version of events are we to believe?
Comment: Hollywood is rampant with liberals who like nothing better than to exert their politics wherever possible, including blacklisting conservative performers. Hell, Ermey even said he voted for Obama the first time, but apparently that's not enough for the libtards in charge.
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