Thomas Friedman – The New York Times:
So, last week, someone named “Rex Tillerson” (who, I am told, is the U.S. secretary of state) declared that the “longer-term status of President Assad will be decided by the Syrian people” — as if the Syrian people will be having an Iowa-like primary on that subject soon. U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley made the same point even more cravenly, telling reporters that the United States’ “priority is no longer to sit there and focus on getting Assad out.”
Is there any wonder that Assad felt no compunction about perpetrating what this paper described as “one of the deadliest chemical weapons attacks in years in Syria,” killing dozens of people in Idlib Province, the last major holdout for Syrian rebels.
Mind you, Donald Trump did not cause this Syria problem, and he is right to complain that it was left in his lap by the Obama team, which had its own futile strategy for dealing with Syria — trying to negotiate with Russia and Iran, the key players there, without creating any leverage on the ground.
But if you’re looking for a culprit for why America has refused to intervene in Syria, you have to look both to your left and to your right.
…
It won’t be pretty or easy. But in the Cold War we put 400,000 troops in Europe to keep the sectarian peace there and to keep Europe on a democracy track. Having NATO and the Arab League establish a safe zone in Syria for the same purpose is worth a try. And then if Putin and Iran want to keep the butcher Assad in Damascus, they can have him.
(Emphasis mine.)
An astute observation among a succinct explainer on how ISIS evolved, who’s allied with whom, and what the future holds in Syria. Gets you right up to speed.
Action-reaction: it’s basic physics. Let the despot know his position is safe and he’ll lash out at his weakest opposition. Photos of dead children were the result.
The US needs to do better. A cruise missile attack probably isn’t going to do it – that only shows we have no skin in the game.
#Thomas #Friedman #Syria #Iran #Russia #foreign #policy #war #chemical #weapons #attack
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