The United Nations said Saturday it has suspended its monitoring mission in Syria due to worsening violence, indicating a complete failure of the peace effort there.
“There has been an intensification of armed violence across Syria over the past 10 days,” said Gen. Robert Mood, who heads the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria.
“This escalation is limiting our ability to observe, verify, report as well as assist in local dialogue and stability projects — basically impeding our ability to carry out our mandate.”
For now, the White House has officially opposed direct military intervention on the grounds that it would lead to greater chaos and escalate the humanitarian crisis in the country.
“We do not believe that militarization, further militarization of the situation in Syria at this point is the right course of action,” White House Spokesman Jay Carney said. “We believe that it would lead to greater chaos, greater carnage.”
While the Obama administration rightly opposes military intervention, they have unfortunately already begun providing lethal and non-lethal aid to the Syrian opposition. This, despite the fact that the rebel fighters have committed serious atrocities themselves and that al-Qaeda elements are known to cooperate in the rebel fight against Assad.
That said, the Obama administration is currently providing both lethal and non-lethal aid to these disparate groups of thuggish militias. As Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma and an expert on Syria, wrote in Foreign Policy this month, “Let’s be clear: Washington is pursuing regime change by civil war in Syria. The United States, Europe, and the Gulf states want regime change, so they are starving the regime in Damascus and feeding the opposition.”
This is exacerbating the conflict, increasing and prolonging the suffering of the Syrian people. Support for the Assad regime from Russia and Iran and for the opposition from the U.S. and its allies in Europe and the Persian Gulf is emboldening both sides and preventing either from giving up and ceding to a political transition.
Russia has been selling weapons to Syria for DECADES. The relationship precedes both The Russian Federation and the Assad dynasty in Syria. I don't really think it's quite accurate to equate Russia's legal arming of the Syrian state with the NATO and Gulf state arming of bandits, terrorists and mercenaries that's been going on for what? 6-12 months?
“Foreign meddling on behalf of all sides in Syria…”
This is absolutely an unfair statement that attempts by sly journalistic dishonesty to put the blame on both sides. Let’s be clear who the sides are.
On one side there are the armed mercenary terrorists supported by some reactionary Arab regimes as well as some western governments who hypocritically claim to be democracies and supporters of human rights. This is clearly meddling in the affairs of another state.
On the other side there is a sovereign government that fights the terrorist to protect its citizens as well as its own system against the foreign terrorists. Some governments may be helping the Syrian government to achieve its aim. This is government to government assistance and is not called meddling by international norms.
"On one side there's an overgrown street gang armed and supported by some reactionary Arab street gangs as well as some western street gangs …. On the other side there is an older and even more overgrown street gang that's claimed the same turf for longer and thinks it should keep said turf …. some other street gangs may be helping that latter street gang to achieve its aim."
There, fixed that for ya.
I guess the difference being one of the 'gangs' you've described (meaning the Syrian government) has some sort of 'legitimacy' to "rule" the disputed 'territory', and the other(s) does not. It doesn't matter what you, or I, or even Hillary Clinton for that matter, 'think' about it.
Thanks for clarifying, Thomas. Let readers be the judge.
Who is our regime trying to fool? On a previous article on this site the regime had announced that everything is ready to intervene militarily in Syria, just waiting for Obama to give the go ahead. It is so true that liars don’t have a good memory.
Well, actually we should not blame them because they are justified to change policy on daily basis depending on which way the wind blows.
Who is our regime trying to fool?
People like Thomas L. Knapp. They don't have to try hard.
Pardon me if the question was rhetorical.
It doesn't matter how hard they try. I always assume the worst of our (sic) regime, and I'm seldom wrong.
John Glaser is an asshole apologist for our Dictator, Bashar Assad, as he spins all of his news articles in favor of the 42 year long Assad Family Dictatorship. We Syrians have no Free Speech or Free Press or any of the other freedoms that the readers of Antiwar.com enjoy in the comfort of their Western Capitalist Democracies. We Syrians live in a nightmare police state with giant Assad Statues and posters on every street and secret police and spies and informants everywhere. If we complain we are arrested, tortured and killed with no trial.
Most followers of AntiWar.com are assholes who live in a dream world where they tall bullshit about human rights but in reality they all worship monstrous dictators like Gadaffi, Assad, Saddam Hussein, the Kim il Sung family dynasty and the Cuban Nightmare Communist Shithole of Fidel and Raul Castro.
90% of all Syrian Freedom Fighters are Defected Soldiers from the Assad Fascist Army who defected rather than commit War Crimes against unarmed civilian populations and the USA needs to immediately arm our Freedom Fighters and needs to Bomb the Shit out of the Fascist Genocidal Assad Army .
[moderator’s note: Syria seems to have greatly expanded. It apparently now includes north Texas, from whence this comment originated – TLK]
ok fool.