Geneva 2: Crossroads for the U.S. and the Opposition
"The past three years of U.S. Syria policy were wasted, stuck on autopilot: passive policy pronouncements asserting “Assad must go” while saying “no” to everything that would help him go. This led to the following results:
- Syria’s revolutionary war expanding into Lebanon and Iraq in the form of sectarian strife.
- An unprecedented refugee crisis.
- Not one but two Al-Qaeda affiliates setting up shop in Syria.
- Last but not least, Saudi Arabia threatening to go off the reservation."
I'm not sure I agree with Nott George Sabra's unrestrained optimism about the shift in US policy, when it has been a series of false dawns rather than a beacon in the night, but certainly those who thought that the Syrian opposition would use Geneva to accommodate the régime were wrong.