Is President Obama's Approach Towards Syria The Best One?

A Question For Obama's Syria Critics: What Are The Alternatives? -- Steve Clemons, The Atlantic

The civil war is horrific. But a strategy superior to Obama's has yet to emerge.

This weekend, on CNN's State of the Union with Candy Crowley, John McCain reacted to the failure of the latest round of Syrian peace talks by declaring that the Obama administration's "policy towards Syria has been an abysmal failure and a disgraceful one."

It's a common refrain for the Republican senator, one often accompanied by praise for the Gulf states' comparatively greater and less cautious support of the Syrian rebels. "Thank God for the Saudis. Thank God for the Qataris," he said at the Munich Security Conference this year. This time around, McCain said that there are viable options other than U.S. military intervention that Washington is not pursuing in Syria. But he failed to articulate them, with the exception of further boosting the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

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My Comment: The American public is on the side of President Obama when it comes to U.S. policy towards Syria .... there is no public support for a more robust and interventionist U.S. policy on Syria .... and President Obama knows that. But being a leader usually means taking positions that are contrary to the popular will .... and the crisis in Syria may be one of those situations. For the moment the slaughter is being contained in Syria, but with each passing month the threat of this conflict becoming a regional one escalates .... and by escalating would eventually put long term U.S. strategic and national security interests in the region at risk. It is this fear of escalation the reason why a better policy and strategy will need to be formulated .... because the old one is only buying time.