OUR PATHETIC SYRIA POLICY – AT 7:18 A.M. ET:  Charles Krauthammer pointed out yesterday how pathetic it was to watch Hillary Clinton talking about Syria, announcing how we "hope" this and that, how we can now "plan for" transition, etc., etc.  There was a time when America led, when a country as important as Syria, Iran's closest ally in the Arab world, would draw more attention.

That time apparently is past.  And the rebels of Syria, who mistakenly believed we would help them (forgetting that Obama never lifted a finger to help the Iranian rebels in 2009), are noticing.  From WaPo:

AL-BAB, Syria — As the Arab world’s bloodiest revolt continues to maim, kill and ravage lives on an ever-escalating scale, anti-American sentiments are hardening among those struggling to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, in ways that could have profound consequences for the country and the region in a post-Assad era.

America, once regarded by the Syrian opposition as a natural friend in its struggle for greater freedoms against a regime long at odds with the West, increasingly is being viewed with suspicion and resentment for its failure to offer little more than verbal encouragement to the revolutionaries.

Why wouldn't we be looked on with suspicion and resentment?  We have a cynical man in the White House, a man who returned the bust of Winston Churchill to Britain upon taking office, but spent 20 years listening to Reverend Wright, who is no Churchill.

In the nearly 17 months since Syrians joined the clamor for change that swept the Middle East last year, Tunisians, Egyptians and Libyans have voted in elections, chosen new leaders and embarked, however messily, on democratic transitions.

Syria, by contrast, is hurtling ever deeper into an all-out conflict with no end in sight, “and all we get is words,” said Yasser Abu Ali, a spokesman for one of the Free Syrian Army battalions in the town of al-Bab, which lies 30 miles northeast of Aleppo.

The rebels say they don’t want direct military intervention in the form of troops on the ground. But they have repeatedly appealed for a no-fly zone similar to the effort that helped Libyan rebels topple Moammar Gaddafi last year and for supplies of heavy weapons to counter the regime’s vastly superior firepower, say rebels and opposition figures.

When the regime falls, as the rebel battalion spokesman assumes it eventually will, Syrians will not forget that their pleas for help went unanswered, he said.

“America will pay a price for this,” he said. “America is going to lose the friendship of Syrians, and no one will trust them anymore. Already we don’t trust them at all

COMMENT:  We are doing some things, but it's too little, too late.  Islamists, including Al Qaeda fighters, are moving into the vacuum we've helped to create through indifference and inaction.  And Iran, which would be damaged if Assad falls, sent a senior official to Damascus to pledge its eternal support for the Assad regime.

Yes, this will be remembered in Syria.  But our policy is also being watched all over the world, by those who depend on American help for their defense.

We went through a terrible period in the late 1970s, after withdrawing from Vietnam and electing the weak Jimmy Carter as president.  Other nations stopped trusting us.  The Russians felt they could simply invade Afghanistan with no consequences, and they did.  Only the election of Ronald Reagan reversed the damage.

Add to this the coming defense cuts, a weak economy, and the gutting of NASA, and you see a picture of a nation in decline, led by a man who doesn't seem to mind much at all.

August 8, 2012