Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty Images and Public Domain
After a 12-year absence, Syria will return to the Arab League summit this week. It’s both an undeniable political victory for the Islamic Republic of Iran—gained via military means—after backing Bashar al-Assad’s regime during the Syrian Civil War, and a massive moral stain on the soul of U.S. foreign policy.
When the Arab League kicked Assad’s regime out, its fall was a matter of “when,” not “if.” The league, never too fond of that regime, was pleasantly preparing itself for the inevitable. Yet, Assad survived for three reasons. First, he had no qualms about killing as many people as needed (even if it meant the entire nation) to remain in power. Second, then-President Barack Obama refused to get involved. And third, he had good friends in Tehran and, later, Moscow.
The Syrian Civil War remains the greatest moral catastrophe and strategic blunder of this century (yes, worse than the Iraq War, in my judgment). President Obama drew a red line against the use of chemical weapons—which Assad interpreted as a green light to kill as many people as he wanted without resorting to weapons of mass destruction—and then he refused to enforce his own red line.