Source: NY Post 4/29/11
A global fiasco
The absolutely pathetic push to sanction Syria
By Benny Avni
As President Bashar Assad confronts the toughest chal lenge to his family's 40-year iron grip on Syria, he likely takes an occasional break to check how the "international community" is reacting: No serious response? Great -- roll some more tanks!
The regime has killed several Hundred people, at least, as it tries to crush the ongoing protests. What's the biggest diplomatic slap it's suffered so far? The withdrawal of the royal-wedding invitation to its envoy to the United Kingdom.All in another day's (lack of) work for the International Community -- that cornerstone of President Obama's foreign-policy doctrine of cooperation, coordination and leading-from-the-rear.
Today, the UN Human Rights Council is expected to pass a US-proposed resolution that . . . will barely condemn Assad, mostly just begging him to stop being so darn brutal. Barring further compromises, the Geneva-based council will also establish a "commission of inquiry" -- which Assad's aides have already said he won't allow into the country.
Oh, and to gain enough supporters for that resolution, our diplomats had to compromise by hiding away a paragraph that recalls an arcane rule: Council members must themselves observe human rights.
After all, that might interfere with Syria's candidacy for membership on the Human Rights Council, which as of now is still on track. (It would replace Libya.)
Meanwhile, back in New York, the international community's top body, the UN Security Council, couldn't manage even the mildest condemnation this week -- as Russia, China, Lebanon and India rushed to Assad's defense.
Assad's UN ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, smirked that "wise" heads had prevailed, while Syria's enemies "failed" in challenging his boss' "reformer" credentials. (Yes, a hat tip to Hillary Clinton there.)
Decked in a fine off-white spring suit, Jaafari then accused America of financing and arm-
ing "violent" outsiders to fight the regime.
If only.
As of yet, the Obama administration's only reaction to Assad's atrocities is wobbly diplomatic maneuvering: Our UN ambassador, Susan Rice, crams as many synonyms for "condemn" as possible into each sentence. Washington is "concerned" about Iran's involvement in the violent assault on demonstrators, she observes. We're "considering targeted sanctions" against Assad's aides, she ominously threatens.
Hmm. We already imposed sanctions in the 2003 Syria Accountability Act -- yet our trade with Syria ballooned from $400 million in 2006 to $1 billion last year.
We also withdrew our ambassador from Syria back in 2005 -- but Obama, in the name of outreach, sent a new one just this year. Will US Ambassador Robert Ford be withdrawn now? Not yet, I'm told.
Also, this week Britain, France and other Europeans summoned the Syrian ambassadors in their capitals for rebuking sessions. And that wedding invite got canceled.
But Imad Moustapha, Assad's ambassador in Washington, is still making his social rounds in our capital. Why?
Foreign diplomats, usually staunch Obama admirers, are at a loss to explain the administration's timid response to the Assad horror show.
One legend making the rounds in Washington (with a wink from the administration) is that our regional allies -- mostly the Saudis and Israelis -- are so concerned about a post-Assad abyss that they're lobbying to "go easy" on Assad. Nonsense: Many in Jerusalem and Riyadh are convinced by now that the fall of Syria's Alawite rule would mainly hurt their most despised strategic enemy, Iran.
More likely, Obama is caught in the illusions of his first two years -- when he bought into the myth that Syria is a "linchpin" of Mideast peace and stability and bet a tall pile of chips on "reformer" Assad.
Wary of withdrawing the bet, he's slow to downgrade diplomatic relations, slow to endorse the rebels and their goals, and slow to urge Assad to "leave." Instead, he's mounting a doomed-to-fail attempt to unite the "International Community."
In Damascus, seeing all this, Assad reiterates his orders to the troops: Shoot to kill. beavni@gmail.com
Read more:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/global_fiasco_4ixNfDD7IUJivQUDI6MsvM#ixzz1KvhsUzRH
