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The Spectacle Blog

Can We Recall the Ambassador From Damascus Now?

By John Tabin on 4.11.11 @ 12:23PM

Bashar Assad is sending in the tanks to crack down on protesters in Syria. This ought to underscore what should have been obvious long ago: Assad, who has drawn closer to Tehran in recent years, was never the "reformer" that a delusional chorus in Washington has long claimed. Bush administration Pentagon analyst David Schenker argues in the current New Republic that it's long past time to drop the presumption that Assad's survival is in the US national interest; it's frankly amazing that this argument is even particularly controversial.

President Obama never should have sent Ambassador Robert Ford to Damascus (the post had been empty for five years before Obama filled it via a recess appointment). Now that Assad's brutality is on display, would it be too much to ask that the Obama administration consider recalling Ford in protest?

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Occam's Tool| 4.11.11 @ 1:17PM

Be like Ron Paul, bow and scrape to terroist scum. Obviously, an useful policy.

Occam's Tool| 4.11.11 @ 1:18PM

Sorry, 'terrorist.'

Occam's Tool| 4.12.11 @ 1:50AM

By the way, Clint's Greatest hits:

Clint| 2.8.11 @ 8:52PM
"The April 6 and Khaled Said groups have emerged as the organizers of the anti-Mubarak coalition. "

" Leftists, socialists and pro-labor people know that the movement takes its name from April 6, 2008, when a series of strikes and labor actions by textile workers in Mahalla led to a growing general strike by workers and residents and then, on April 6, faced a brutal crackdown by security forces. A second, allied movement of young Egyptians developed in response to the killing by police of Khaled Said, a university graduate, in Alexandria. Both the April 6 group and another group, called We Are All Khaled Said, built networks through Facebook, and according to one account the April 6 group has more than 80,000 members on Facebook. The two groups, which work together, are nearly entirely secular, pro-labor and support the overthrow of Mubarak and the creation of a democratic republic."

Right as usual, Timmy!

Bob K.| 4.12.11 @ 7:58AM

It is an Alawite existential issue here. The other 85% of Syria which is largely Sunni and not Alawite no longer wants to be ruled by the Alawite muslim minority. What ever happens, ultimately nothing will change. One brutal regime will follow another.