I’LL TAKE SHORT-LIVED INTERNATIONAL LAW DOCTRINES FOR $500, ALEX: Duty to Protect: RIP. “A new UN report estimates that 60,000-plus people have been killed in Syria between March 2011 and today. Worse, the rate of casualties is increasing as the war drags on, as both sides begin to use heavier weapons. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay put it bluntly: ‘Collectively, we have fiddled at the edges while Syria burns.’ . . . It’s certainly not too late for the U.S. to get more involved in fixing the mess in Syria, but our options are now considerably worse than they were two years ago. Years have passed, and we’re continuing to pay for our ill-advised decision to intervene in Libya while ignoring the more serious crisis in Syria—as are hundreds of thousands of Syrians.”

I guess this is more of that “smart diplomacy” we were promised. Hillary Clinton was unavailable for comment because of health reasons, but somebody could ask Susan Rice or Samantha Power. . . . .