A mere six months after the start of the Syrian uprising, President Obama has finally called for Bashar Assad to step down and imposed tougher sanctions on his regime—but has not yet pulled our ambassador from Damascus. Why did he wait so long?
As I mentioned in a previous post, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton explained the delay as follows:
“It is not going to be any news if the United States says Assad needs to go,” she said. “Okay, fine, what’s next? If other people say it, if Turkey says it, if (Saudi) King Abdullah says it, there is no way the Assad regime can ignore it.”
But of course neither Turkey nor Saudi Arabia joined in today’s call for Assad’s departure, which was issued by the U.S., Britain, France, Germany and the European Union. Their declaration is welcome but overdue; it might have made more of a difference months ago, when the protests were first picking up steam and before Assad had been able to marshal an effective and brutal response. One wonders if the Obama administration’s habitual desire to not have the U.S. take the lead has bought the odious Assad regime a fresh lease on life.
Likewise in the case of Libya, American hesitancy and irresolve have allowed Moammar Qaddafi to hang on far too long. There are now signs that the Qaddafi regime may finally be on its last legs, the rebels having taken possession of the crucial oil refinery at Zawiyah, just a half-hour’s drive from Tripoli. But the delay in getting rid of him has already exacted a cost in more lost lives, more destroyed property—and deeper divisions in Libyan society which will make it all the harder to create stability in Qaddafi’s wake.
On Wall Street it matters not only that you make the right investment picks but that you make them at the right time: if you wait too long a great stock may no longer be a good bargain. The same principle applies in foreign policy: It’s not just a question of making the right policy calls—it’s also a question of making them in a timely manner. That is something this administration seems to struggle with, and the result is that the U.S. appears increasingly left behind by the fast pace of events in the Middle East.
