While Syria bleeds

Benny Avni

Is President Obama ready to show some leadership on Syria? Any leadership? Even from behind?

This week Syrian President Bashar Assad escalated his assault on his own citizens at Hama and other cities; the UN Security Council woke up; the European Union imposed new sanctions on Assad’s cronies, and Italy recalled its Damascus ambassador.

And, with glaringly bad timing, Obama asked the Senate to confirm his ill-considered appointment of Robert Ford as ambassador to Syria. This, after weeks in which the American president sounded more cautious about denouncing Assad’s atrocities than even UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Reuters

Talk won’t stop the tanks: An image smuggled out of Syria via social media shows regime armor entering the town of Idlib on Monday.

But not to worry: Newspaper reports yesterday claimed that Obama is almost ready to call for Assad to step down. Plus, the Security Council on Wednesday ended five months of silence on the issue with a statement condemning the Assad government’s violence against Syrian civilians.

Our UN ambassador, Susan Rice, actually took pride in the fact that the council issued a clear condemnation -- with “one voice” yet. Surely, a triumphant Rice told reporters, Assad “must be quite surprised and disappointed by the outcome” at the council.

A “statement” and rumor of a “call” -- not much to make Assad worry.

And (sorry, Ms. Rice), Arab diplomats tell me that, while Syria initially ordered its client state Lebanon (which holds a rotating seat on the council this year) to prevent any Turtle Bay condemnation, it later realized that a “statement” isn’t as bad as a harsher council resolution --- which Lebanon can’t block.

Worse, to get that “unity,” we went along with added language that warned outside powers against even thinking about intervening on behalf of the brave Syrians now risking their lives to topple the four-decade Assad tyranny: The resolution pointedly reaffirmed Syria’s “sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity” and insisted that “the only solution to the current crisis in Syria is an inclusive Syrian-led political process.”

That paragraph was inserted on behalf of Assad’s allies -- world powers that, in the aftermath of Iraq and Libya, increasingly push for such anti-interventionist language. But, sadly, the sentiment also suits the Obama administration -- which, beyond mealy-mouthed rhetoric, wants nothing to do with other peoples’ fight for freedom.

This week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met in Washington with Syrian dissidents and expressed admiration for their courage as they fight against a tyrant she once called a “reformer.” When they begged for clearer American support (at least in rhetoric), Hillary reportedly retorted that Syria is their country and this is their courageous fight.

So, brave Syrians, you’re on your own -- but watch us as we unite the “international community” around empty words.

In fact, smuggled cellphone images from Syria’s killing fields make it increasingly hard even for cynical powers like Russia and China to resist European-led pressure to do something about Syria. We should have refused to play the “water it down” game.

By the way, Lebanon still formally “disassociated” itself from the council’s statement -- so the council didn’t even quite speak with “one voice.”

Beyond Turtle Bay trivialities, a larger question looms: Has America’s role in the world been reduced to this? To trying for five months to coax Russia, China, South Africa and India into issuing a mild rebuke of a thug as he butchers his own people?

Some say Obama falls back on such pathetic UN posturing because he no longer believes in America’s role as the world’s moral compass. Others say he’s a pragmatist who realizes we’re a power in decline. Still others claim he’s simply overwhelmed by world events and can’t decide on a course of action.

Whatever the excuse for the erstwhile leader of the free world, don’t expect it to impress the residents of Hama as they dodge fire from Assad’s rooftop snipers.

beavni@gmail.com