Deja vu all over again in Syria
If the Obama administration's response to Bashar al-Assad's violent crackdown sounds familiar, it's because it should. It's remarkably like the administration's response to Mahmoud Ahamdinejad's crackdown on his citizenry 22 months ago. Charles Krauthammer doesn't like it. This delicacy toward Assad is dismayingly reminiscent of President Obama’s response to the 2009 Iranian uprising during which he was scandalously reluctant to support the demonstrators, while repeatedly reaffirming the legitimacy of the brutal theocracy suppressing them.Indeed.
Why? Because Obama wanted to remain “engaged” with the mullahs — so that he could talk them out of their nuclear weapons. We know how that went.
The same conceit animates his Syria policy — keep good relations with the regime so that Obama can sweet-talk it out of its alliance with Iran and sponsorship of Hezbollah.
Another abject failure. Syria has contemptuously rejected Obama’s blandishments — obsequious visits from Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry and the return of the first U.S. ambassador to Damascus since the killing of Hariri. Assad’s response? An even tighter and more ostentatious alliance with Hezbollah and Iran.
Our ambassador in Damascus should demand to meet the demonstrators and visit the wounded. If refused, he should be recalled to Washington. And rather than “deplore the crackdown,” as did Clinton in her walk-back, we should be denouncing it in forceful language and every available forum, including the U.N. Security Council.
No one is asking for a Libya-style rescue. Just simple truth-telling. If Kerry wants to make a fool of himself by continuing to insist that Assad is an agent of change, well, it’s a free country. But Clinton speaks for the nation.
Labels: Barack Obama, Charles Krauthammer, dhimmi, Hillary Clinton, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:56 PM
1 Comments:
Hillary Clinton as Sec. of State, John Kerry chairing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. That's Abbott & Costello, who's on first, what's on second.
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