Our sainted international community doesn't want America alone to stop Assad because the original Axis of Evil (with their very own three UN seats back in the pre-1991 days), Russia, wants to prevent the UN from acting against their little vicious ally:
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that the use of force is only legal when it is in self-defense or with Security Council authorization, remarks that appear to question the legality of U.S. plans to strike Syria without U.N. backing.
And any action might make things worse:
He also suggested that a U.S. attack could lead to further turmoil in conflict-ravaged Syria, where the United Nations says over 100,000 people have been killed in the country's 2-1/2-year civil war.
By that logic, in 1942 we should have just let Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and militaristic Japan keep their gains since a whole lot more death and destruction was needed to defeat them and drive them back.
So Assad should just keep the killings at a modest pace to avoid upsetting the sec-gen while he is having his dinner.
So this is what we've reached. Syria's Assad is a threat to world peace yet since one or two permanent members of the United Nations Security Council are willing to block the UN from granting UN backing, we can't do anything to stop Assad.
Mind you, I'm not sure at all that President Obama is interested in stopping Assad. His objective might be similar to Ban Ki-moon's. But I'm just saying that the worship of the international band of cut throats and thugs who dominate the UN is misplaced because these are hardly people we should look up to as the embodiment of the good protecting the weak from the evil.
UPDATE: On the bright side, Ban Ki-Moon is at least being more cautious than Kofi Annan was about Iraq. I guess membership in the Nobel Peace Prize Club as its privileges.
