While much of the world's attention recently has been focused on the dysfunctional relationship between Israelis and Palestinians and the latter's United Nations petition for statehood, the situation elsewhere in the Mideast continues to be extremely uncertain. That's especially true in Libya and Yemen, where protesters continue to suffer casualties as they battle entrenched regimes for personal and political freedom. The situation is even more dire in Syria, where the regime's response to protests has been extraordinarily violent and increasingly anti-American.
The latest expression of anti-U.S. feeling came Thursday, when a group of Syrian President Bashar Assad's followers hurled rocks at a convoy taking U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford to a meeting with a prominent Damascus dissident. Then, when Ford arrived, a crowd of protesters pelted him and other members of his entourage with eggs and tomatoes. After he entered the building, the demonstrators tried to enter the building. Ford and others were trapped for three hours.
No one in the U.S. delegation was hurt and Ford was able to leave the building after a couple of hours. Still, the events are telling. Nothing of the sort occurs in Syria without the instigation and support of the government. The incident clearly was a highly visible way for Syria to physically express its displeasure with the United States' continuing support for the anti-Assad uprising.
Though Assad's brutal crackdown has left thousands dead and many more injured or missing, the uprising is gaining traction. It appears more and more likely, observers report, that the situation could slide into a civil war pitting troops still loyal to Assad against a revolutionary force made up of armed defectors and volunteers from the ranks of protesters. That would be disaster for ordinary Syrians caught in he middle -- and for the U.S. effort to promote peaceful regime change in the country.
As Thursday's events show, the United States engenders little respect in official Syria and thus has little leverage in the campaign to end Assad's rule. If civil war were to erupt, its influence would wane, and complicate diplomatic efforts.
President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton are right to promote policies that call for Assad to leave office; for all Syrians to reject violence as a means of promoting political change; and, for the creation of a popularly formed democratic government. Whether that message can still find resonance in a nation reeling from Assad's brutal crackdown is uncertain.