One of the best commenters to grace our site, Anymouse, mentions below the possibility of a genocide of Alawites and Christians if Assad falls. He mentions this in response to my thanking President Obama for the most upfront official U.S. prediction of Assad’s fall yet.
The best overview I’ve read of what has happened in Syria since the Arab Spring can be found at MERIP here , hat-tip to my favorite anti-Bush/anti-Israel Middle East blog, The Arabist. As per usual with the sort of commentary the Arabist likes, the very informative essay ends with flourish against what the U.S. did in Iraq.
As for what the U.S. should do now with Syria, there’s a big symposium up at TNR , with it looks like the best piece being the one by Daniel Drezner, who advocates arming the opposition.
There is also a strong thread over at Ricochet about this Symposium, where Istanbulist Claire Berlinski incredulously mocks the possibility of the Syrians welcoming a Turkish-established safe-zone.
Daniel Pipes, however, thinks we should do nothing. One reason among many: the longer it takes for Assad to fall, the more Arab statesmen will become alienated from Russian influence. Quite a contrast with the other Daniel, who thinks our diplomats should get the opposition Syrians to guarantee the Russians their Syria-coast naval base, a la Guantanamo, in exchange for Russian support at the UN.
