"אין כמעט יום שעובר, כאשר החושים שלנו לא הלמה על ידי התפרצות חדשה של הטרור במזרח התיכון. Despite our best efforts at making and keeping the peace, פוליטי, כלכלי, ומתחים דתיים מובילות לעתים אי שקט, אלימות, ו מהומות. "

-ג'ים באקר ב "לשגשוג אפוקליפסה בא"

World powers have a growing concern that the unrest in Syria could lead to terrorists gaining control of a secret stockpile of chemical weapons. Syria is one of eight nations to refuse to join the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention meaning there’s no way to know the amount of chemical weapons or the types of weapons currently under the control of the Syrian government.

Western countries believe that Damascus has more chemical weapons than any other place in the world including mustard gas and the deadly VX nerve agent. The Syrian government claimed they keep the weapons in an attempt to balance what they claim is a nuclear weapons stockpile in Israel.

The Syrian army is trained to use poison gas as a combat tactic and can place the chemicals on long range missiles according to both U.S. and Israeli intelligence.

Despite the looming threat the United Nations Security Council, the only world body that can address the weapon stockpiles, has not taken any steps to deescalate the situation.