So why are we ready to see Assad remain in power in Syria?
"Our Western friends made it clear in London that Assad cannot be allowed to go now because they think chaos and an Islamist militant takeover would ensue," said one senior member of the Coalition who is close to officials from Saudi Arabia.
Remember, al Qaeda and Islamists are strong because they have weapons to back their fanaticism while the more moderate opposition is losing even its limited supplies because they are being attacked by Islamists who seize those weapons.
When we try to enforce weapons control in Syria, only the Islamists (and Assad) got weapons.
I said early on that we should arm the rebels. Then, there weren't jihadis in the resistance. Even when the jihadis started showing up as the fight dragged on, I considered the jihadi problem a follow-on problem to be addressed after Assad was overthrown.
So with jihadis growing stronger even as we dithered over overthrowing Assad, I fugured we had to ship in weapons and not worry about them leaking to the jihadis. Simply withhold weapons like anti-aircraft missiles that we absolutely don't want terrorists to get. I mean, seriously, terrorists don't have problems getting rifles and small arms. And heavy weapons like recoilless rifles, heavy machine guns, and mortars aren't all that useful to terrorists.
If we'd flooded the zone, the moderates would have weapons. Sure, the jihadis would have weapons--but they have them anyway by taking them from the moderates (and from Assad's forces)! At what level did our policy of restricting weapons help keep weapons out of jihadi hands and safely in moderate rebel hands?
Assad was doomed two years ago. If we'd had even an inkling of a clue, we could have driven him from power. But no, Iran and Russia were allowed to intervene while we watched on, sure that somehow Assad would leave office without us having to dirty our hands with any serious level of intervention.
"Smart diplomacy," indeed. It smarts, all right. This is humiliating. Assad may still lose this war. But we've done so much to help Assad recover from his early bad position that I think we have to rename our "pro-rebel" group, the "Friends of Syria, " to "With Friends of Syria Like This Who Needs Enemies?"
