A U.S. State Department official told Congress on Wednesday that international sanctions against Syria by the United States, the Arab League, Turkey and other nations and entities are making it more and more difficult for President Bashar Assad to maintain power. That's a positive sign for those who want democracy to grow in Syria. The official added, though, that the end of Assad's rule was not imminent and that he could remain in control for a while longer. That's not so positive. It suggests that increasing levels of violence are likely in the days to come in Syria.
There is powerful evidence to support that likelihood. On Thursday, Army defectors reportedly killed 27 government forces in a series of coordinated attacks at various locales around the country. If true - casualties and other information is impossible to confirm independently since foreign journalists are forbidden to travel in Syria - the day's action marks a significant escalation in violence in the nine-month conflict between Assad's forces and Syrians who demand a more democratic government.
To date, most of those opposed to Assad were unarmed. That's changed as increasing numbers of armed defectors from the Syrian Army have joined them. The presence of the latter has increased the firepower available in the confrontations between pro and anti-Assad forces, and the casualty count has climbed as a result. The number of government forces killed is hard to determine, but United Nations officials now say more than 5,000 people, mostly protesters or innocent bystanders, have been killed since the revolt started.
Assad's military and security forces have shown no evidence that sanctions against Syria have directly affected them or their mission. They continue to respond vigorously to every public protest and to every attack. They continue, too, their mission to destroy the protest movement and those who support and shelter it. Casualty totals reflect that aggressiveness. On Wednesday, for example, Army tanks shelled a town where defectors allegedly were hiding, apparently without regard for the civilian population there.
Such violence has increased concern about the possibility of civil war in Syria. Indeed, worries about the conflict escalating into more widespread violence prompted Canada on Thursday to advise its citizens to leave Syria. "Our best advice is to leave Syria immediately, by any available means and while options exist," Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said. Canada is not the first nation to take such a step. The United States did the same in September.
Life in Syria, even for those not directly involved in the protests, is becoming more precarious and deadly with each passing day. If the State Department assessment about the sanctions is correct, those dangers might not persist much longer. If that's the case, the world can only hope that Assad will bow to the inevitable and reach accommodation with his opponents. Fighting on in what increasingly appears to be a futile cause will only magnify the present tragedy.