After the horrors in Houla, tip toeing past the tipping point may the only plan left for the international community since too many unknowns have remained unknown for too long. The Syrian picture is getting murkier by the hour.
With no way to independently verify the claims of all the fractured factions fighting, any assistance offered beyond bread, bottled water and band-aides may be more damaging than helpful. At this point, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan should be making a plea for the restoration of sanity before trying to negotiate a ceasefire between Bashar al-Assad and whomever.
After nearly 14 months of protest, demonstrations, government crackdowns, torture, killings, executions and now, daily massacres and blood baths, one would think an assessment of Assad's mental state should be a consideration. With the Hague giving Charles Taylor 50 years for his atrocities, Bashar al-Assad should be shaking $hitless knowing that his nation's status quo can't last forever. We're reasonably sure he has access to CNN or Al Jazeera.
The question to be asked now is, has Bashar al-Assad gone screwy or has he simply lost control of his nation to invisible forces determined to destroy his government. If the Syrian leader is delusional in his assertions that armed terrorist gangs are trying to destabilize his government, then the world has another mad man to deal with.
If this is a sanity or lack thereof issue, then some form of intervention will be needed to save the lives of the innocent and non-combatants. Symbolic gestures of expelling Syrian diplomats will unlikely move the mind of a mad man, as the late Col. Kaddafi's demise will attest. No. this conflict will continue. Hence, continuing to use logic and reason to negotiate terms with a mind of dwindling capacity lacks logic and reason itself. Per the current UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, we need a plan B and we need it yesterday!
However, if there is a shred of truth to Syria's claims that the country has been infiltrated by entities interested only in sowing seeds of chaos to reap unknown benefits later, then jumping into the fight might only add fuel to a blast furnace. Without knowing precisely what the hell is really going on, the Syrian crisis will have to be allowed to boil a bit longer.
Perhaps the Russians and the Chinese know more than their willing to divulge publicly as to the true conditions on the ground. Considering their willingness to be seen as accepting the deaths of women and children to protect a trading partner, there has to be more to this calamity than meets the global eye.
Maybe they've got the goods on those who stand to gain strategic advantages should the Syrian government remain in a state of endless turmoil. Until the smoke clears, anybody and everybody is a suspect.
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