Syria's carnage: Outside forces must press to end the violence
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Whatever the prospects are for diplomacy by Russia to end the Syrian conflict, the tragedy is that the bloodshed will continue while that occurs.
The fighting -- now near civil war -- has gone on for 11 months. It is difficult to know what the casualties are, but the United Nations said early last month that more than 5,400 people have been killed since the uprising began in March, with probably hundreds more since then.
Two major diplomatic efforts have flopped. The first, by the Arab League, involving observer teams, was abandoned, in no small part, because of Arab disarray. The second failed on Saturday. A U.N. Security Council resolution calling for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, pushed by the United States and the West, was vetoed by China and Russia.
In rejecting it, China and Russia cited the chaotic results of U.S. and NATO regime-change efforts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. With their vetoes, China -- and particularly Russia -- assumed responsibility for trying to bring Syria's fighting to an end. No one can argue that the violence should just be allowed to play out. In addition, Russia has been a traditional ally of Syria since the Cold War, providing the government of Mr. Assad's father, Hafez al-Assad, tons of sophisticated arms.
Without the Arabs or the West removing the pressure for a settlement, Russia must now be given a chance to see what it can do. It dispatched Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov and its foreign intelligence chief to Damascus on Tuesday to provide incentives and twist arms to seek reconciliation and change among the Syrians. With presidential elections in Russia coming soon, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin would no doubt like to achieve a Syrian peace agreement.
As for the United States, it closed its embassy in Damascus Monday. President Barack Obama's reasoning was some combination of security and punishment of the Syrians, but another result was a self-curtailment of America's ability to follow and influence events and efforts there to resolve the conflict.
First Published February 8, 2012 12:00 am
