(New Republic) Josef Joffe - With the recent Sino-Russian veto of a mild motion of censure of the Assad regime by the Security Council, both sides in Syria will now fight to the finish. Harsher sanctions by the West will follow, but they will be undermined by Moscow and Beijing. Meanwhile, arms flows will quicken - to both sides. The insurgency will escalate into a full-blown civil war. And the winners will take horrible revenge on the losers. Libya was no precedent for Syria. Remember the rule: We bomb only where the campaign promises to be short, cheap and decisive. And where the target - like Gaddafi - has no allies. Assad does: Russia, China, and Iran. The writer, editor of Die Zeit, is a Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford.
2012-02-28 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive