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Source: http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/12/a-sea-change/
A Sea Change in Washington's Policy toward Syria
(CNN) Andrew J. Tabler - Secretary of State Clinton's statement that Syrian President Assad is "not indispensable, and we have absolutely nothing invested in him remaining in power" is the latest public signal of a quiet sea change in U.S.-Syria policy. U.S. ambassador Robert Ford's visit to Hama last week - where the regime massacred 30,000 people in 1982 - showed very clearly that this time the regime's actions there will not go unnoticed. The Assad regime then sent pro-Assad supporters to attack the U.S. embassy in Damascus, marking a turning point in U.S.-Syrian relations. The writer is the Next Generation Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and author of the forthcoming book In the Lion's Den: An Eyewitness Account of Washington's Battle with Syria.