Demonstrators in Syria today are carrying out their biggest protests of this week, which typically take place on Fridays and usually end with troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad ruthlessly gunning down protestors using live ammunition and tank rounds.
The Wall Street Journal nails the western response to Assad’s cruelty in an opinion piece today.
And the world’s reaction? The U.N. Security Council couldn’t muster the courage to put out a press release. Iran, Russia, China, India and the Arab states all have President Assad’s back. Six weeks into the crackdown, the U.S. did impose financial sanctions on three top Syrian officials, the intelligence agency and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The European Union followed by freezing the assets and putting a travel ban on 13 officials.
Statements have also been issued. “There may be some who think that this is a sign of strength but treating one’s own people in this way is in fact a sign of remarkable weakness,” said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday in Greenland.
But neither the U.S. nor the EU put President Assad on the sanctions list or travel ban. President Obama didn’t call for him to step down or even pull the U.S. Ambassador from Damascus. In an interview with the Atlantic website published Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton elaborated on the U.S. approach to the Syrian dictator: “What we have tried to do with him is to give him an alternative vision of himself and Syria’s future.”
