The Obama administration’s favorite Middle Eastern reformer is up to his usual non-reformist tricks:
Reuters reports that protesters loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad have broken into the U.S. embassy compound in Damascus, according to diplomats in the capital city.
Reuters reports that French Embassy guards have fired live ammunition on the protesters to stop the attack on the U.S. Embassy.
The State Department could not immediately confirm the incident.
Apparently no US personnel were injured. The catalyst for Assad’s tantrum seems to be Ambassador Robert Ford’s bold visit to Hama last week. Ford, who has been facing criticism and calls for his own recall, also hammered the Syrian despot in a facebook post on Sunday. Ford’s handling of the peaceful protests in Hama make a strong argument that the US should keep him as ambassador as long as we’re going to have an ambassador to Syria at all (we didn’t, until President Obama decided to send one). In his facebook statement, Ford says:
Hama and the Syrian crisis is not about the U.S. at all. This is a crisis the Syrian people are in the process of solving. It is a crisis about dignity, human rights, and the rule of law. We regret the loss of life of all Syrians killed, civilians and security members both, and hope that the Syrian people will be able to find their way out of this crisis soon. Respect for basic human rights is a key element of the solution.
That’s so obviously right that Assad apparently feels compelled to egg on violence against the US embassy in his own country, in response. That’s what reformers do, right, Secretary of State Clinton?
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