Leading from another planet

The latest news from Syria is that about 70 people were killed yesterday in clashes between the forces of the Assad regime and protesters who have been calling for changes in that country. Before moving on, let's put that in context. That level of slaughter on a consistent basis would result in about 25000 dead in a year. Since Syria is a tiny country, let me add that the level of killing -- were it to happen in the USA -- would mean more than a million dead in the space of one year. In other words, Assad has clearly declared war on the Syrian people and does not care how many die in his quest to stay in power.

Also yesterday, the Arab League called for a meeting with the Syrian opposition to plan for a transition in that country to a new government. The arabs are on the verge of calling for the ouster of Assad and perhaps even moving towards armed intervention to end the slaughter. Russia is also negotiating with the opposition even though Russia has a long history of support for Assad and his regime.

The only two major powers in the region who have done nothing to try to stop Assad are Iran and the USA. Iran, of course, is the main regional ally of Syria. It uses Syria to get its arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon. It used Syria in the past to get fighters into Iraq to battle with the USA. It helped Syria in its quest to acquire nuclear weapons, which was stopped by the Israelis in the last two years. In short, having Assad in control in Syria is very important for Iranian hegemony in the Middle East. Even so, the Iranian government has called upon Syria to stop killing its people.

The USA, under Obama, has basically done what the Iranians have done. Obama has said that Syria needs to stop the killing. Or course, we have seen no American help from those under fire in Damascus and other cities. Other than some meaningless sanctions, we have seen no action by Obama on this entire subject.

In Libya, we first heard that Obama was "leading from behind". The end result of Obama's refusal to act quickly on that subject was that tens of thousands died in Libya whose deaths could have been avoided. With regard to Syria, Obama cannot even claim to lead from behind. I expect soon that we will hear the claim from the White House that their new strategy for Syria is "Leading from another planet."