Assad was not behind the chemical weapons released in Ghouta Douma (I mixed them up in my memory I think) in 2013 2018. It's impossible to know for sure what happened, it could've been basically any faction for any number of reasons. But it seems highly unlikely that Assad would cross the one thing the US specifically said was a red line for intervention. Chemical weapons don't give enough of an advantage to take that risk. It's more likely that some faction did it in hopes of drawing the US into the war (or by the US itself). The media was very quick to equate doubts about whether the weapons were linked to Assad with denial of the presence of chemical weapons at all, and both were answered with the horrific images and what kind of monster would defend this and so forth. I remember hearing later, once everyone had forgotten about it, that there was an official report where the original version, which included input from people on the ground when it happened, was completely scrapped and nobody ever saw it, and a second report was put together in Washington with nobody on the ground involved, which was based entirely on the video evidence everyone saw, which just showed evidence that the sarin gas was present.

I don't have any way to know or prove what happened, I just think the official narrative doesn't make any sense if you expect Assad to act in a remotely rational way as opposed to a cartoon villain. And I sound crazy for bringing it up because everyone's forgotten it even happened. Hexbear is basically the only place on the internet where I can ever mention it.