There’s Only You and Me…
November 14th, 2012 - 5:49 am
Someone was going to do this first, and I suppose given their history and inclinations France was the likeliest candidate:
France announced Tuesday that it was recognizing the newly formed Syrian rebel coalition and would consider arming the group, seeking to inject momentum into a broad Western and Arab effort to build a viable and effective opposition that would hasten the end of a stalemated civil war that has destabilized the Middle East.
Kissinger was supposed to have said about the Iran-Iraq War, “It’s a pity they can’t both lose.” Given that the Syrian rebels will almost certainly become dominated by Islamists once all is said and done, Kissinger’s sentiment is probably the correct one.
Yes, but unlike Egypt and even Libya, it is not really clear how the new Syrian Islamist government could be worse than the outgoing, Hezbollah-backing, Iranian-allied Assad. We haven’t got much to lose. By acknowledging the rebels’ right to rebel (I wouldn’t necessarily go so far as to arm them), we at least avoid alienating them right off the bat. No doubt the rebel coalition contains bloodthirsty Islamists, but it also contains liberals, and I hope our government is quietly doing all it can to help the liberals.