PROBABLY TOO LATE – AT 10:52 A.M. ET:   Facing withering criticism that the Obama administration's Syria policy is too little, too late, and laced with too many yawns, Hillary Clinton has flown to Turkey to express some love for the Syrian opposition.  From WaPo:

ISTANBUL — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sought Saturday to broaden U.S. contacts with political opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad beyond a fragmented group of exiles with limited influence inside the country.

The top U.S. diplomat also pledged more military and intelligence cooperation with Turkey, a close U.S. ally now receiving a daily tide of refugees from the 17-month conflict.

This close ally is becoming increasingly Islamist, and may not be a "close ally" much longer. 

“We have been closely coordinating over the course of this conflict, but now we need to get into the real details of such operational planning,” Clinton said during a day of meetings with Syrian opposition figures, refugees and top Turkish officials.

“Our intelligence services, our military have very important responsibilities and roles to play so we are going to be setting up a working group to do exactly that,” she said.

Let us note that this conflict has been going on for 17 months.  Clinton's statements are pathetic, reflecting a pathetic policy.  Essentially, she admits that we're just getting started.

The question is whether these opposition groups, some of which may have been influenced by extremists, still are interested in us, and whether they'll be our allies should they gain power.  They owe us nothing.

Increasingly, we seem diminished, and not at all the leader.

August 11, 2012