Assad's State of Affairs

Sanctions seem unlikely to put an end to Syria's bloody crackdown, but that's all that's been proposed by the West.

The Syrian government has answered seven weeks of protests with tanks, soldiers, and arrests to little condemnation from the rest of the world. The Guardian's Simon Tisdall takes western leaders to task for not publicly telling President Bashar al-Assad to resign as they did with Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Libya's Moammar Gadhafi. “It's clear Assad – his reform promises drowned in a sea of tears – will not back down until the revolt has been thoroughly suppressed,” says Tisdall of tanks firing on unarmed protesters and thousands of young men imprisoned. “It's clear, too, that whatever political legitimacy he once laid claim to has now been wholly lost.” The West's long-held belief that Assad would be the bridge between his father's legacy and modernity has evaporated as fast as the hope that Gadhafi's son would do the same in Libya.

The New York Times' editorialists blame the UN Human Rights Council for allowing Syria to prime itself for one of four seats set aside for Asian countries. “Shame on the Asian bloc for not insisting that Syria withdraw. India, Indonesia and the Philippines would be a lot more credible candidates if they refused to run with Syria,” they write. “Shame, too, on the Arab members of the United Nations that reaffirmed support for Syria’s election even after Mr. Assad turned his guns on his people.” If somehow Syria does land their seat, the Times warns the council's legitimacy would be irreparably compromised.

At least the slain protesters will not have died for nothing, the National Post's editorial board proclaims. “The traditional raison-d'être of its government – confronting Israel – will become a joke, for Damascus will have shown itself to be more brutal to its own Arab citizens than even the hated 'Zionist entity' is accused of behaving toward Palestinians,” they write. “President Assad’s days are numbered, in other words. It’s just a question of how many of his own people he kills on the way down.” At 800 and counting, that toll is already far too high; revolution fatigue has seemingly raised the bar for what's required for the West to respond.