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We look at how the U.S. has been involved in the Syrian civil war over the last seven years.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

As more details emerge today about the U.S.-led strikes on Syria overnight, U.S. officials are calling it a limited operation aimed just at setting back the country's chemical weapons programs and preventing Syria from using those chemical weapons again. We're going to step back now and try to look at how these strikes fit into the controversial U.S. policy over the seven years of the Syrian civil war, a war that has sent millions of refugees fleeing across the world and killed half a million people. It's a war that President Bashar al-Assad seems to be winning, despite the condemnation of his brutality. NPR's Deborah Amos has covered the war all along and joins us now.

Deborah, thanks for being with us.

DEBORAH AMOS, BYLINE: Good morning, Scott.

SIMON: The Pentagon says these strikes were not an attempt to change the course of the civil war. Is that consistent with U.S. policy we've seen over the years?

AMOS: It is indeed consistent, and you've seen it in two administrations. Assad will stay for now, and the other alternative is too chaotic, and that now has lasted for a while. Obama's strategy was to arm the rebels, not so they could win, but so they could pressure Assad to a negotiating table. That was almost impossible to calculate. President Trump has abandoned most of that support for the rebels, but the administration is still pushing for this negotiated settlement, and that is what Defense Secretary Mattis said in a congressional hearing just hours before the strike. He was very passionate about stopping the attacks on civilians. We have to get to a negotiations. It's hard, though, to see how this strike moves Assad to a negotiating table.

SIMON: U.S., France and Britain of course conducted those strikes, and they have been staunchly critical of Bashar al-Assad, calling him, in so many words - and occasionally, they even used this word - a monster or a beast. But are they still essentially reconciled to Assad staying in office?

AMOS: They say the same thing that the U.S. does, that they are waiting for a political transition through a peace process. So far, there has been no alternative to Assad. The Russians say they don't back him, but they have no alternative. The Iranians do, and it would be very difficult to convince them to abandon Assad at this point. So the best policy for everybody, although it seems unlikely, is to move towards a negotiated settlement.

SIMON: So if the U.S. sees a political transition and some kind of settlement as a long-term goal, what are they doing about the suffering that seems to be prolonged in this war, including the 5.4 million refugees who have fled Syria?

AMOS: This is a contradiction, certainly in the eyes of humanitarian workers. Under the Trump administration, it is nearly impossible for a Syrian to find refuge in this country. This year, 2018, the Trump administration has resettled 11 Syrian refugees in the United States and only 44 in this fiscal year. Now, in the last year of the Obama administration, we're talking upwards of 13,000 Syrians, so the door has been closed on Syrian refugees in this country. We also saw the same thing when the administration had to renew temporary protective status for Syrians. Those who came after 2016 didn't get it. So you have this odd contradiction where some Syrians, it was too dangerous for them to go home, and others, it was not.

SIMON: If U.S. policy is focused on prohibiting the use of chemical weapons, what does this strike accomplish? I mean, there was an agreement between Assad that the Russians would help bring about circumstances and he was going to destroy his stores of chemical weapons, and that certainly didn't seem to work.

AMOS: Nor did the strikes a year ago, although what happened is Assad quits for about six months. We didn't see any strikes. But it is part of their tactical array against the rebels, and it may be now that they don't need another strike. This one happened in Ghouta, and afterwards, the rebels agreed to leave. So it's possible that he doesn't need to use it.

SIMON: That's NPR's Deborah Amos, who has been covering the Syrian civil war assiduously for the past seven years. Deborah, thanks very much for being with us.

AMOS: Thank you, Scott.

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We look at how the U.S. has been involved in the Syrian civil war over the last seven years. SCOTT SIMON, HOST: As more details emerge today about the U.S.-led strikes on Syria overnight, U.S. officials are calling it a limited operation aimed just at setting back the country's chemical weapons programs and preventing Syria from using those chemical weapons again.

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The killing of two opponents of President Bashar Assad's regime has left their family and the wider relocated Syrian opposition community reeling in shock and fearing for their lives.

Police discovered the bodies of Orouba Barakat, 60, and her daughter, Halla, 23, who is a U.S. citizen, on Thursday night in their Istanbul apartment, reportedly after friends and colleagues were unable to reach them for several days.

Orouba was a member of the Syrian National Coalition, the political opposition group that has participated in internationally brokered peace talks to bring an end to the Syrian war.

Her daughter, Halla, who spent her childhood in Raleigh, N.C., was a journalist who worked with opposition station Orient TV.

Even on her personal Facebook page, the younger Barakat documented the violence taking place in her country, with posts about children killed in airstrikes and photos of victims of mass killings.

Turkish media outlets, citing police sources, reported that the women had been repeatedly stabbed. There were also other, unconfirmed reports that their throats had been slit.
Politically motivated killing?
A police investigation is underway, and as of Saturday, there have not been any official statements about circumstances of their deaths or any suspects.

But relatives and opposition activists immediately characterized this as a politically motivated killing.

Shaza Barakat, Orouba's sister, said Saturday that she suspected the Syrian government is to blame.

"Because Hafez al-Assad had been displacing us since the 1970s," she told NPR, referring to the former Syrian president and father to Bashar Assad. "We paid a high price - displacement, torture, suffering - we don't have a country."

"Orouba was always standing against all that, defending people's rights and demanding justice. We are people, we have human rights, and we deserve justice."

In an earlier post on Facebook mourning her sister, Shaza wrote: "The oppressor chases the good everywhere."

Ghassan Aboud, the founder of Orient TV, wrote on Facebook: "No truce and no reconciliation with the monsters."
Fear of retribution spreading
Thousands of opponents of the Assad regime have been tortured or killed in jails in Syria. In the course of the Syrian war, many have fled to Turkey and other neighboring countries and have sought to organize a political opposition that could force the Assad family from power.

But with the Syrian government, backed by Iran and Russia, now gaining the upper hand in the country's civil war, fear of retribution is spreading among this community.

That is why so many reacted to these killings by blaming the Syrian government, explained Rami Jarrah, a Syrian journalist who supports the opposition.

"It's too early a stage to determine whether the regime have begun a targeting campaign against Syrians dissidents abroad," he said Saturday. "But the fact that so many activists believe it was the regime is a sign of the genuine fear in this community now."

The Committee to Protect Journalists cited a local journalist, whom it did not name to protect the person's safety, who said that the Barakats had received death threats on social media and in emails from supporters of the Syrian government, but that they had not paid the messages much attention.

The CPJ has documented four other incidents of Syrian journalists being targeted in Turkey since 2015. In all of these cases, the militant group ISIS claimed responsibility.

The Barakat women had been close friends of Kayla Mueller, the American aid worker who was kidnapped by ISIS in 2013 and died while still being held hostage 18 months later.

Kayla's parents, Carl and Marsha Mueller, said in a statement to ABC News that " Orouba and Halla were like a mother and sister to Kayla."
"How many more?"
The shock of their deaths reached the United States, where the Barakat family has already suffered.

Extended family members Deah Barakat, wife Yusor Abu-Salha and her sister Razan Abu-Salha were shot dead in their home in Chapel Hill, N.C., in 2015. Their neighbor was charged, and authorities suggested during a preliminary investigation that the killings were not related to politics or religion.

"How many more beloved family members will I lose to hatred and violence?" Suzanne Barakat, a relative in North Carolina, wrote on Facebook. "We are not safe anywhere."
NPR's Peter Kenyon contributed to this report.

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Mother And Daughter Who Opposed Bashar Assad Regime Killed In Turkey

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The killing of two opponents of President Bashar Assad's regime has left their family and the wider relocated Syrian opposition community reeling in shock and fearing for their lives. Police discovered the bodies of Orouba Barakat, 60, and her daughter, Halla, 23, who is a U.S.

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Companies and individuals are invited to submit their application for the award in three categories: case studies (for companies), special Innovation, and research. The call for applications is open until 15 August 2018.

"We are happy to launch the IV Global Chemical Leasing Award, encouraged by the great results of the previous award's editions. Together with our partners from the Austrian, German and Swiss Governments, UNIDO aims to acknowledge best practices in sustainable chemicals management and inspire companies and individuals around the globe to apply innovative business concepts, such as Chemical Leasing" -says Petra Schwager, UNIDO Chemical Leasing programme coordinator.

"I believe in Chemical Leasing because I have seen the results. I assisted companies in the transformation of their businesses by applying the model. I was a witness of how they changed in terms of economic, environmental performance and safety, but mainlyhow they adapted their managerial and corporate values. I was happy to participate in the award and to see that the model is being adopted all over the world." - says VojislavkaŠatrić, an experienced chemical engineer and the winner of several Chemical Leasing awards (for PR, consulting services and scientific papers).

More information aboutthe award 2018 may be found on the chemicalleasing.org website and on social media on the FB page. Questions about the award and the application process may be addressed to ChemicalLeasing[at]unido.org.

You might be asking yourself: "Does my company apply Chemical Leasing?"

Chemical Leasing is around us, it is applied in many companies worldwide, but sometimes under different names.Ecolab, an international supplier of chemicals, calls it a flat-fee agreement or active-based price model. Safechem has branded its chemical leasing operations as COMPLEASE™.

Chemical Leasing is a functional-based business model that aims at a more efficient use of chemicals in the production process by redefining the business relationship between the chemical user and the supplier.

The conventional business model assumes that the more you sell, the more you earn. However, in the Chemical Leasing model the supplier does not sell quantities. The supplier sells the function of the chemical. This is the service rendered by the chemical.

For example, the function of the chemical could be to clean or degrease metal parts, or to protect a surface. Payment is then made according to functional units, that is, the number of pieces cleaned or the extent of area coated.
Example 1
A producer of automotive parts needs solvents to clean and degrease them. The company pays the chemical supplier for the functions performed by the chemical, that is, the cleaned metal parts. The company does not pay according to the amount of solvent used.
Example 2
A car producer needs surface protection for its cars. This includes car body pre-treatment, surface activation and the application of a system of coatings. Under Chemical Leasing the company pays per car body protected. It does not pay according to the amount of chemicals used.

When payment is linked to the functions performed, both partners are incentivized to achieving target results and meeting the requirements of operations, by using less chemicals. By aligning the motivations of the user and the supplier, Chemical Leasing helps achieve a win-win situation for both partners.But also the environment benefits: a prolonged life cycle of chemicals, waste minimization and the efficient use of resources - all that contributes to the achievement of circular-economy goals.

"The thing that excites me about Chemical Leasing is the way that it aligns our motivations. We want to have performance, we want to have profitability, and we want things to be good for the environment and human health - Chemical Leasing does that and changes the whole directions of the way we want to go about using chemicals... We get the function and the services that we need without having the extra waste! " -says Paul Anastas, "Father of Green Chemistry", Director of Yale University's Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering.
DO YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT CHEMICAL LEASING? Read this comprehensive article.

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A bloody start to 2018 in Syria; Over 30 children killed in two weeks - Modern Diplomacy

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Companies and individuals are invited to submit their application for the award in three categories: case studies (for companies), special Innovation, and research. The call for applications is open until 15 August 2018. "We are happy to launch the IV Global Chemical Leasing Award, encouraged by the great results of the previous award's editions.

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Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, is ordering attacks on anyone that disagrees with his government and way of control. He has killed children and adults who feel differently then him. I selected this topic because it is continuing today. I thought it sounded the most interesting too. In my research I was most impacted by the way Bashar al-Assad runs his country. I do not agree with him on the way he handles people who don't like or agree with him.

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"We paid a high price — displacement, torture, suffering — we don't have a country." - Shaza Barakat

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A social issue according to Google, is something that influences a considerable amount of people within a society. The social issue I decided to write about is Syria. In Syria they have a horrible president and a bad society. During this event the president takes matters a little too far when it comes to something different. He has killed a mother and daughter who brought awareness to the problems in Syria. This is related to the Holocaust because Bashar al-Assad is killing because someone disagrees with him or because they think differently and that is what Hitler did. In way this is different from the Holocaust because Bashar al-Assad is not killing them because they are Jewish but because they try to show people what is actually going on. In a way the world does tolerate it but it also doesn't. According to NPR, they say that Trump is passionate about stopping the attacks on the civilians but after all these years nothing major has really happened.