On Syria: Thinking It Through

Some have argued that the US ought to be intervening more demonstratively in the current uprisings in Syria.  Again, the US to the rescue.  After all, as Fouad Ajami proclaimed in re intervening in Libya (on national television - heard it myself, but can't recall the network; CNN, I think - and I was aghast that they'd called on him for "insight"-) "that's what we do."

Dov Zakheim thinks it through (at The National Interest), in an essay appropriately titled "The Nightmare that is a U.S. Attack On Syria":

aid to the protesters might simply lead to a radical Sunni regime in Damascus, with fewer qualms about attacking Israel than those of Bashar al-Assad and his father. It is for this reason that the Israelis remain divided about the protests against Bashar; many in the Israeli military still feel it will be easier to do business with him than with a potentially unstable successor regime.

At the end of the day, the Alawis are sure to prevail, even if the Assads disappear; they simply have the guns, and the army will remain with them. Liberal interventionists may howl for American military action against the Assad regime. Obama should continue to ignore them.