What Next on Syria? :: Middle East Clarity

Elliott Abrams response to a question from the Council on Foreign Relations to several of its Senior Fellows asking what should the United States do about the continuing attacks by the Assad regime on the population of Syria (the short replies are here). Abrams writes:

"The Assad regime is vicious and repressive, and has in the last year killed more than 6,000 protesters. It has no legitimacy and holds on to power by brute force alone. It is also Iran's only Arab ally, the arms supplier to Hezbollah, and an enemy of the United States that worked hard to send jihadis to Iraq to kill Americans...Thus far, we have imposed sanctions on Syria and made many demands. The problem is that our speeches and even our sanctions have not helped defend the people of Syria against Assad's bullets.

The real questions in Syria, Abrams writes, is now who will win and how long will this take. "We ought to find an Assad victory (or perhaps one should say an Assad, Russian, Chinese, Iranian, and Hezbollah victory) unacceptable.The United States should encourage the arming and funding of the opposition, to give them a better chance to defend themselves and the protesters and to overthrow the regime. Whether we best do this ourselves or through others is a tactical question; we should do what will work. But we should be determined that the decades of murder and oppression under this regime in Syria will soon come to an end."

Related Topics: Syria, US in the Middle East receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free middle east clarity mailing list