NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE from Doyle McManus at the Los Angeles Times:

A U.S.-backed agreement on a “cessation of hostilities” in Syria is supposed to take effect at the end of this week, but there’s been no sign of hostilities slowing — let alone ceasing.

Instead, Russia’s air force, Bashar Assad’s ground forces and even neighboring Turkey have all escalated attacks on the rebels whose five-year-long uprising against Assad is faltering. In northern Syria, missiles and bombs have hit two hospitals in the past week. With Russia’s help, Assad’s forces have nearly surrounded Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and the rebels’ most important base. Meanwhile, Turkey has been shelling Kurdish rebel forces that are allied with the United States.

And even after the non-truce formally goes into effect, both Russia and Syria have served notice that they will continue to attack rebels they consider “terrorists,” a label they have applied to almost anyone opposed to the regime.

As an attempt to stop the war, it’s fair to say that the cease-fire — reached after energetic negotiation by Secretary of State John F. Kerry — has already failed.

The last major deal Kerry brokered wasn’t signed by one side or ratified by the other, yet still achieved its unstated goal of welcoming Iran’s terror-sponsoring regime into the community of nations. Perhaps similarly Kerry was hoping to get a ceasefire to stick amongst parties with no interest in sticking to a ceasefire.