Syria’s descent into hell
This failure to get American humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people has not only worsened the humanitarian crisis but has also created opportunities for extremist groups to provide relief services and thereby win even greater support from the Syrian people. To many, these extremists appear to be the only ones stepping in to help Syrians in the fight. Meanwhile, moderates in the Syrian opposition are being discredited and undercut by our lack of support — including the newly established Syrian opposition coalition, whose formation last month was made possible in part by U.S. diplomacy.
While recent regime defections and battlefield setbacks suggest that Assad’s hold on power is deteriorating, this conflict could grind on for some time, at an awful and escalating cost to Syria’s people, its neighbors and U.S. interests and prestige. It is not too late to avert a strategic and moral calamity in Syria, but doing so requires bold and decisive U.S. leadership that needs to come directly from President Obama.
The United States must rally our allies to channel assistance to the newly established Syrian opposition council for distribution in the rebel-held areas. We must provide weapons and other lethal assistance to the opposition military command. And we must impose a no-fly zone in some areas of Syria, to include using the U.S. Patriot missile batteries en route to Turkey, to protect people in northern Syria from Assad’s aerial attacks.
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It’s the Middle East – they love to fight and kill each other.
jake-the-goose on December 31, 2012 at 8:55 AM
What is the endgame for America?
rob verdi on December 31, 2012 at 9:03 AM
…..because watching Obama surrender in Afghanistan and abandon Iraq after the successful surge….I’m sure our allies have no fear at all about sticking their necks out to align with us….
….because this worked out so well in Libya…just ask al-qaeda and the other jihadist groups that Obama armed and turned massive amounts of territory over to….
….and I’m sure that Obama’s support and arming of the muslim brotherhood in Egypt won’t come back to bite us in the a$$ either.
….would love to see liberals on the Hill supporting arming the jihadist while at the same time calling for the disarmament of the American people.
“Forward!!!”….
…oh right…they have already been doing that…in Libya.
….the same kind of “no fly-zone” that we instituted in Libya to keep Qaddafi from flying all over the place.Remember when Obama said regime change was not our mission over there…in fact it would be stupid…you know…while he was bombing the sh!t out of Qaddafi headquarters and hunting down the people of the Qaddafi regime…..
….yea…that “kind of no fly-zone”…..
Idiot……..
Baxter Greene on December 31, 2012 at 9:38 AM
I’m not sure what these three think they are accomplishing by writing this op-ed. Are they attempting to prepare the American people for what has already or will be decided?
Blake on December 31, 2012 at 9:52 AM
Smart Power!™
Odysseus on December 31, 2012 at 10:04 AM
We should air drop IOU’s and them they can cash it any bank.
Oil Can on December 31, 2012 at 10:07 AM
It’s a mess now, it’ll be a mess if we intervene and it will continue to be mess if we don’t. In other words it’s a mess. Do these do-gooders really think it will be all peace and happiness if we impose a no-fly zone and back the resistance? Will we then go in to protect the Alawites from slaughter? There will be winners and losers, who are we to pick which one is which? We have no dog in this fight, stay out.
major dad on December 31, 2012 at 10:37 AM