NOW WASHINGTON POST TAKES A DIG AT KERRY OVER SYRIA

Just a few days ago The Washington Post attacked Obama yet again for not directly intervening in Syria to force an illegal regime change. Editorials like that are becoming much more frequent. To add to this frequency, The Washington Post has today attacked not Obama but Secretary of State John Kerry for apparently conceding to Russia and agreeing to peace talks without any preconditions, such as Assad must go no matter what, and without arming the rebels before the talks.

Just a couple of weeks ago, The Post’s Karen DeYoung reported that the administration was moving toward providing arms to rebel forces.

Yet now Mr. Kerry seems to have reversed his strategy. Rather than taking steps to turn the tide against Mr. Assad and then inviting a dying regime to negotiate, he is rushing to convene a peace conference early next month in cooperation with Russia before applying any serious pressure. Instead of delivering arms to the opposition, Mr. Kerry on Tuesday suggested that “additional support” for the opposition would come only if “President Assad decides to miscalculate again” by refusing to attend the proposed conference.

This switch back to the multilateral diplomacy that has repeatedly failed in Syria is happening at a time when Mr. Assad not only is not feeling more danger, but has been making battlefield advances with the help of fresh fighters from Lebanon. If the regime’s calculations have changed, most likely they have swung toward greater confidence. Not a shred of public evidence suggests that Mr. Assad is willing to negotiate his own departure.

...It appears as if the administration again is hoping that the Russian government of Vladi­mir Putin will deliver Mr. Assad. The administration made that same wishful bet last year, only to be stiffed by Mr. Putin. Yet Mr. Kerry seems to have become a believer.

...As for Mr. Putin, there’s no sign that he has altered his principal objective in Syria, which is to prevent a regime change promoted by the West. Russia continues to deliver arms to Mr. Assad, possibly including a sophisticated missile system that would complicate any air attacks by the United States or Israel. The anti-American campaign Mr. Putin has been waging continues apace, as shown by the Cold War-style propaganda operation staged in Moscow Tuesday following the arrest of an alleged American spy.

Mr. Kerry is right that the ideal endgame for Syria is a negotiated settlement. But the administration’s rush to enlist Russia and the Assad regime in talks before acting to change the balance of forces on the ground means this initiative, like those before it, is more likely to provide excuses for U.S. passivity than an end to Syria’s carnage.

[source : Obama administration hopes Putin will deliver Assad, Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obama-administration-hopes-putin-will-deliver-assad/2013/05/14/45d388a4-bcc3-11e2-97d4-a479289a31f9_story.html?hpid=z4, 15th May 2013]

They are not happy. Not happy at all.