Do Nothing Foreign Policy

The American response to the ongoing atrocities in the Middle East and North Africa continues to sicken me.  William Dobson has a well-written article in Slate.com addressing the issue in response to the apparent chemical weapons attack in Syria.

 http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2013/08/barack_obama_is_failing_in_the_middle_east_syria_s_bashar_assad_and_egypt.html

Once again, the administration has demonstrated a bent for the practical and ethically indefensible.  As Dobson notes,

The Obama administration isn’t responsible for preventing this massacre in Syria. President Obama cannot control what happens in Damascus or Cairo, and it’s unfair to suggest otherwise. But he must also own the policies he creates and the messages those policies send. And here’s the truth: The president will run out the clock on the problems he likes least. In Egypt, while Washington fretted over the definition of a “coup,” the Gulf’s monarchies happily stepped in to fill the void. In Syria, the administration hemmed and hawed about arming the rebels for 18 months. When they finally came around to the notion, the “good rebels” were buried in shallow graves. As it turns out, there is a cost to slow walking a foreign policy crisis... 

The Middle East’s autocrats understand how to turn a president’s “judiciousness” into an effective weapon for murder. These strongmen—be it Assad, Sisi, or a host of others—recognize that when an American president demands proof, evidence good enough to stand up in court, to make foreign policy decisions, he is effectively turning a blind eye to their crimes. So, for every peaceful protester who is gunned down in Cairo, the regime gives us an armed mob of Muslim Brothers. As Assad’s death squads go from house to house, Damascus issues denials and counterclaims. If that’s all it takes, then it is easy enough to create the fog of war, even when it’s truly a massacre.

In this way, the administration's inaction makes it culpable.  Perhaps not complicit because American power is not absolute, but still culpable.  Culpable of what?  Culpable of tolerating criminal behavior of autocrats and dictators when the autocrats and dictators in question appear to be more sympathetic to U.S. interests than the alternative.  Culpable of hypocritically abandoning commonly held principles of fairness and justice so as to not rock any boats.  The administration should denounce the coup in Egypt, denounce the Assad massacre, and take appropriate and forceful steps to develop an international coalition to force an end to the Egyptian coup and the Syrian civil war.  Doing nothing is unethical and amounts to condoning the deaths of innocents in Syria and Egypt.

So what can be done?  How about less lawyer-speak and more frankness?  How about calling a coup a coup?  How about telling Egypt that democracy requires elections for regime change?  How about telling Assad that the U.S. will do everything in its power to stop him from slaughtering Syrians?  How about telling Assad that the U.S. will do everything in its power to assist with the orderly transition to a representative democracy, including combating any party who would use violence and terror to subvert the will of the people?  How about acting in away that does not give ammunition to every anti-democratic nation in the world to call attention to our hypocrisy when we advocate for the rule of law, peace, and democracy elsewhere?  How about we just try something other than to sit on our hands?

In Dobson's words:

I used to think that, in the long run, when the memoirs are written and the minutes of the White House meetings are known, the 100,000 people who died in Syria would be one of the worst stains on this administration. Not because they failed to stop it, but because they failed to try. But I was wrong. One hundred thousand was the floor.  

This sickens me.  It should sicken you too.