Free Syrian Army's loss may have been diplomacy's gain – Malcolm Rifkind

The key words are, "Syria is a hellhole", and diplomacy is the international community's way of allowing Assad to make it worse.
This is obvious to everyone not on the Left:
"I don't think anyone remotely believed that the consequence of the British decision was that Obama would say he had to go to Congress to seek endorsement for a strike. If you were being logical it was the exact opposite of what he should have thought. What we demonstrated is that if you go to parliament you may not get the answer you want. That opens up the question: what answer did Obama want?"
The final pessimism fits in with a desire not to help the rebels, but to be seen to have tried to do so.
"If the international community had given more practical help to the moderate Syrian forces then the extremists could have been kept at bay. But I regret to say it is probably now too late, and that is a fact that is difficult to ignore."