News today is that Syrian elite forces took back the northern town of Jisr al Shughour with a heavy show of firepower, including helicopters. The town is reportedly emptied, with refugees pouring into Turkey and others too afraid to step outside. There are now several thousand Syrian refugees in Turkey, signalling that Turkey, at least, has doubled down on its decision to turn on Bashar el Assad after a short but disgraceful pro-Assad interval.
But while the New York Times reports that the Syrian “government appears to have abandoned all pretense of trying to offer democratic change to calm an angry public,” the Obama administration has yet to give any teeth to the president’s May dictum that Assad may choose to lead a transition to democracy “or get out of the way.” The president has said nothing in weeks, and though Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called the government attacks on the Syrian people “horrific, revolting,” she too has made clear that the administration is not planning on doing … anything. Rather, she says hopefully, the Arabs are “trying to, behind the scenes, get the government to stop. And they believe that that at the time is the best way to go forward. So we listen very closely to what people in the neighborhood, in the region say.” Aaaaah. That will work well. We listened to the Arabs when they said “Qadhafi must go.” We will listen when they say “Assad must stay.”
Subcontracting foreign policy to the Arab League is not good policy at the best of times, but when it comes to the future of the Middle East, it’s almost insane. Saudi Arabia, which now dominates the League, has been little more than a force for instability in the Muslim world—a sponsor of the Islamism that feeds al Qaeda, and an unstable dictatorship in its own right. Don’t get me wrong: I too advocated that Qadhafi must go, but the motives of the Saudi king were slightly less than pure. (Qadhafi paid to have him assassinated.)
If Obama, for whatever reason, was brave enough to call for Qadhafi’s ouster, and finally, to call for Yemeni President Saleh to step down, one might once again ask where the heck he is on Syria. This is the no brainer. We can argue that Libya is not a vital national interest; we can argue that Saleh was cooperating in the war on terror; but what can we say for Assad? A murderer. A sponsor of terrorism. A vicious dictator. He has brutalized Syria, had a hand in the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister, funneled weapons to Hezbollah and Hamas, worked with al Qaeda affiliates, and, finally, he has a nuclear weapons program. This is Iran’s main proxy in the Middle East; Assad’s ouster will be a huge blow to Tehran. But the U.S. ambassador is still in Syria?
What to do? First, not hide behind the Brits and the French at the U.N. Security Council and get a resolution condemning Assad. Second, ratchet up the sanctions on Syrian officials and start publicizing Assad’s bank accounts. Third, get the president of the United States out of the sad corner he has painted himself into and say Assad is finished. Fourth, figure out who in the opposition to talk to and get all of them into Clinton’s office at State. Fifth, work with the opposition to nail down a transition plan for post-Assad. Do it all publicly.
No one elected the Arab League to run American foreign policy. We know the president doesn’t know what to do, doesn’t want to be forward leaning, and hopes it all goes away in time for him to be re-elected. But now is the time to lead. And if he doesn’t want to, perhaps he should “get out of the way” and let someone else do it. By all accounts, Clinton is eager for a more aggressive posture on Syria.
