A very good, insightful article in Foreign Affairs today by Robert Ford, a former ambassador to Syria, detailing the utter failure of the administration's Syria policy and what might be done to salvage the situation. Much of what the administration proposed to be done has been made inoperative by events. U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration should undertake a major diplomatic and assistance effort, or it should walk away from Syria. Merely continuing to inject small amounts of aid and men in the fight won’t sustainably contain the jihadis or be sufficient to reach the political negotiation the administration keeps hoping for. The quiet end to the Syrian armed opposition’s Hazm Movement, with which the Americans had worked in northern Syria, was the latest signpost of the current failed policy. With aid coming too little and too late, the movement was easily knocked aside by al Qaeda-linked extremists who gained new territory and border...(Read Full Post)