There is no doubt that the US State Department has, in the beginning of the Syrian Revolution, acted with courage and determination. Who can forget Ambassador Ford leaving the secured grounds of the US Embassy in Damascus to travel to Hama as a sign of support for the Syrian people?
However, one year into the conflict and thousands of Syrians who perished savagely, the US State Department is acting as if the conflict started yesterday.
Take this latest statement by Ambassador Ford delivered on Facebook in which he says to the fact that the US Embassy in Damascus “is trying as hard as it can to show the world it knows what is occurring in Syria.”
While this is helpful, especially if US technology and spy agencies can document Assad’s crimes against humanity, Syria is past this Show and Tell. The world and their cousins know what Assad is doing. What Syria needs is not more documented facts with regard to Assads’ atrocities. What it needs is the US State Department following the lead of John McCain, who just demanded the US bombs Assad’s forces to stop the killing, by handing over the Syrian file to the Pentagon and making strong recommendations to the President to heed Senator McCain’s advice.
Time for diplomacy is done with in Syria and this dead horse will not yield glory to its beater by simply rising up on its own for a negotiated settlement or some new found hope Assad may somehow just reverse his policies to please the dashed expectations of few diplomats hanging-on with their teeth.
Juxtaposed to the Chamberlains at US State are those Diplomats whose conscience is aching because they are at a loss over the apathy on the fourth floor of their building. They watch Senator John Kerry ferry himself back and forth and pray to the Greek gods that he may simply get stuck in an elevator for few weeks just so Syrians can be given the chance to save themselves from his dearest of friends Baschar al-Assad. They watch closely, render an opinion when asked to, but mainly are sidelined because they are not “mainstream” enough.
Then there are those who are inebriated with power and who seem to have totally forgotten the difference between self-interests and US interests. The idea that the US can dispatch the cavalry to save the Syrian people is just too simple. It does not showcase why they reached that inebriated state in the first place. Non, they must think of a new and novel idea totally their own to solve this problem and until they do, they will keep striking that dead horse because that’s what is expected of them.
For heaven’s sake, how many people will have to die before US State lets go of diplomacy for Syria.
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