The Dark Places of the Mideast, or Why There is Little We Can Do About Syria

There could not have been a more appropriate time for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) to host its event “Unrest in Syria: How Will the U.S. Respond?” than the morning of President Obama's address on the Middle East. Here are the takeaways:

–Right off the bat, John Hannah, a Senior Fellow at FDD and former national security advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney, set the strategic backdrop: “Syria is the lynchpin in the U.S.-Iran competition that has come to frame our view of the Middle East.” Hannah's Iran-centric notion went unchallenged, making me wish I had brought with me a box full of Marc Lynch's new Iran report. …

So I think what we're left with in Syria is, as John Hannah put it, “a giant step into the dark.” The United States can do little more than stand back and watch. Unlike the positive and hopeful human progress we've witnessed in Egypt and Tunisia, where the actors and institutions were in place for Washington to partner with, there is almost nothing the West can grab on to in Syria. It is a dark place, led by a nefarious man capable of exacting enough fear amongst his own people that we will, in all likelihood, have to come to terms with a tragic status quo.