WarSclerotic

Were it not dealing with the killing of 130,000 civilians, a genocide of frightening proportions, and the exposure of terrible brutality by the Assad regime not been exposed — then perhaps this summit to discuss the future of Syria wouldn’t seem to be an especially unique diplomatic farce.

Representatives from across the globe are talking about a transfer of power and holding elections, and are discussing whether the accused is eligible to participate. In actuality, no one is putting any real stock in the worthless chatter that is supposed to extricate our neighbor to the north from this horrific crisis.

This summit was born in diplomatic sin — U.S. President Barack Obama’s belated focus on Assad’s wholesale use of chemical weapons against his people. There is a real achievement, though. Assad’s chemical weapons warehouses have been wiped clean, almost entirely if not entirely. The lack of a comprehensive diplomatic plan, however, and without the required determination to foster a political solution, this achievement, valuable as it may be, is not enough because it is merely one aspect of the equation.

The West’s dithering led to the disintegration of the Syrian opposition. The democratic countries left the sane elements in the opposition to erode. Now the rebellion is being led by al-Qaida, which again puts into question whether under the current conditions humanity should be interested in toppling Assad, who was and still is subservient to the Iranians.

Not to mention that America is not what it used to be. Obama, after all, is currently engaged in a love affair with Tehran, and one can only think that if it were up to the Americans, the Iranians would be allowed to participate in this summit. Only a Saudi Arabian veto and threats by the vestiges of the Syrian opposition to boycott the summit left the representatives for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at home, or perhaps they flew with him to the World Economic Forum in Davos to ask high-tech leaders to invest billions in their country.

The summit in Geneva, which began Wednesday to discuss Syria’s future, is the unnecessary result of the international community’s empty diplomatic efforts to rid Syria of the Assad regime. Even the West’s willingness to initiate Assad’s downfall has waned. Instead there appears to be a sense of acceptance that the Middle East exists on a powder keg, which means an increasing threat to stability in Lebanon and to calm in Israel.

Only the staggering proportions of the ever-deepening human tragedy prevent this summit from being ridiculed as a joke.