“The White Helmets” won an Oscar tonight for Best Documentary (Short Subject). Two of the rescue workers, leader Raed Saleh & cinematographer Khaled Khatib, were scheduled to attend the awards but Saleh was unable to leave because of the extreme intensity of airstrikes in Syria & Khatib could not because the Syrian government cancelled his passport.

Saleh said the film is a “platform for the voices of Syrian children & women trapped under the rubble as a result of the airstrikes & artillery shelling, & for the voices of thousands of displaced Syrians who have been forced from their homes.” It is also a tribute to those who risk their own lives to rescue them from that rubble.

Bravo.

(PS: To those Assadists who campaigned so feverishly & prayed so ardently to their gods for the film to lose, may we say, “Eat it.”)