Editorial
Syria needs saving from Assad
Regime has gone on long enough
Every fraught situation must get worse before it can get any better. But that standard prescription does not appear to be working in Syria, where conditions have been getting increasingly worse. The massacre of as many as 108 civilians in the town of Houla by the country's security forces is but the latest manifestation of the desperation with which the Assad regime means to hang on to power. Of course, the regime has denied any role in the Houla killings and its apologists have tried shifting the blame on to the opposition arrayed against the president. Nothing can, however, disprove the fact that the government has once more killed its own people. With hundreds of Syrians already dead at the hands of the army and other security forces in Homs and other places, it is hard to believe President Bashar al-Assad's protestations of innocence.
The situation calls for tougher action by those nations which matter. Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, now in his new role as peace envoy on behalf of the UN and the Arab League, has only echoed the sentiments of all Syria-watchers by describing conditions as being of grave concern. Additionally, the move by a number of countries --- France, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain and Australia --- to expel Syrian envoys in their capitals is a hard slap on the face of the Damascus regime. The move should make Assad rethink the options before him. The plain fact is that this war of attrition between the regime and Syria's people cannot go much further because of the larger risks involved. With all the changes which have gone on in the Arab world over these past many months, it is only natural that change must come to Syria as well. The longer the regime obstructs that need for change, the surer becomes the danger for Syria's people.
It is now for the global community, especially Syria's friends Russia and China, to go for concerted action and convince Assad that he ought either to bring about change or simply be prepared to lose power. It would, of course, be wrong to have change in Damascus brought about by foreign military intervention. At the same time, it will not be right to let Assad's murderous regime carry on.
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