Expanding the Definition of Genocide

The World Owes Ione Balarra a ‘thank you’

After seeing the headline “Spanish party leader accuses Israel of genocide in Syria” in which the head of the Spanish Podemos Party, Ione Belarra accusing Israel of genocide in Syria, I first wondered why the leader of a party would care? Aren’t they supposed to make sure there is enough ice and Sangria? I mean I had never been to a Spanish party before, but I just assumed.

My bad.

When I read the article, I realized that this was the haed of a political party and not a fun, late night Barcelona party and I decided to take her seriously and to do a little research so as to show the fallacy of her argument. But the more I dug and the more I spoke to the victims the more I have to admit that she is right. The level of destruction that Israel has inflicted on Syria in a short time is unprecedented in the history of warfare. Rather than relying on the lying, no good media, especially those that turn a blind eye to genocide and other horrible crimes, I decided to go to the source and interview the victims.

In 48 hours Israel attacked Syria over 350 times and it has totally destroyed the entire population of Mig-29’s as well as Syrian naval ships, tanks and artillery pieces. In a conversation with one of the remaining Mig’s, who goes by the code name “the Idlib Terminator”, I was told that “all of my friends are gone. Destroyed in hours. How will I be able to fly in formation when I am on my own?” Further, Mr. Terminator stated that, “israel has taken from me one of the small pleasures in life, flying above the clouds and indiscriminately bombing cities. Have you ever seen a city burn from 20 thousand feet? It makes all of the paintings in the Louvre look like garbage. Pure beauty. And now that Israel has ethnically cleansed the Mig population from Syria, I will have to hide in a foreign country and never see the beauty of my burning homeland again.

When I asked him where else to turn for information on Isreal’s genocide in Syria, he sent me to his friends at the Syrian Chemical Weapons Facility in Masyaf. He led me to a mixing machine he met while just a piece of metal in grade school. By the time I got to Masyaf, the mixing machine was barely breathing. In his last breaths he said “look at what they have done. All the laboratory equipment and machines come from the same town. We go to each other’s weddings and funerals – and in the blink of an eye, we are wiped out. This is genocide! Where is the world? Who wants to live in a world where chemical weapons manufacturing plants, with all their wonderful technology can’t live in peace?” I asked him where I should go next and with his last breath he sent me to the artillery division responsible for shooting the chemical weapons shells into the towns and the villages.

By the time I got to the artillery base, nearly all was lost. Rubble and twisted metal everywhere, I met what was left of the unit. I saw a self-propelled artillery piece, He was small, but looked powerful. He was clearly in pain as the hull and the barrel were twisted. “What is your name?” I asked him, rubbing his wounds. “Here, they call me the ‘Little Engine’ since I am smaller than the rest of the pieces, but more powerful. I can shoot further than everyone. I can travel faster then everyone else. When they have dangerous jobs to do, they send me. Once they sent me over that large mountain over there, loaded with shells filled with wonderous chemicals that create all sorts of colors when they explode. They needed someone to go over the mountain – but it was very steep. The large guns couldn’t make it. So they asked me if I can. I looked up at that beautiful, tall mountain and thought of all the wonderful boys and girls on the other side who wouldn’t get to see the beautiful colors caused by my exploding shells and I said – I can’t deny them that. ‘I think I can’ I said. ‘I think I can’. And I did.

“But now – we have all been destroyed. Look at what the Israelis have done? They have committed genocide on an entire artillery corps and denied children the pleasure of exploding.” With those words, he choked to death on the smoke from a burning artillery piece to his left.

I decided to go to the coast since the port of Latakia was cleansed of Syrian warships and I wanted to see if I could gather testimony from a victim before it was too late.

It took me awhile, but I finally reached the coast and saw everything destroyed. Nothing was moving. The corvettes, missile boats, fast attack craft and LST’s were all sunk. But then, I looked closely and saw one Syrian Patrol Boat, the smallest of their warships, clinging to life at the northern end of the port. It was listing and I ran quickly to see if I could get a last word from him. He had trouble talking but gave me a little smile and said “I am the last one alive. Its like a horror movie. Just me – and I will die soon, I know. We had dreams. We were supposed to sink the Israeli navy and land our brothers on the Israeli shore and kill and rape whomever was there. The Israeli’s took that dream away from me. From all of us. For so many years we trained and patrolled and in one day – a genocide in one day!!! – have you heard of such a thing? …. In one day, all our dreams are gone.”

And with those sad words, he sunk, joining his family of sunken boats in the sea.

We have to thank the wisdom of the young, charming and informed Spanish politician Ione Belarra, without whom we would not have the testimony of the victims of the Great Genocide of Syrian Military Equipment of 2024. The civilized world owes her a debt of gratitude for pointing out that genocide also includes the total destruction of war machines in the hands of murderous lunatics.

Thank you, Ione Ballara.