However, that’s not the situation our leaders in Washington have created. There is and has always been an alternative to either intervening militarily, against the strenuous objections of Russia and China, or leaving Assad to do whatever he’s going to do. But crafting that alternative would require positive leadership from the United States (It would, for example, require changing our intelligence focus from generic – plaintive – questions about whether Assad will survive to what would happen if the US took specific actions.).
We would have to take a position, one beyond simply getting rid of Assad. We would have to start knocking heads together to line up a coalition for it. It seems absurd to have to explain that – but then, we did elect Obama in 2008.
Originally published at http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/03/13/syria-going-going-gone/