“SMART DIPLOMACY:” US Policy in Syria: Dither Until It’s Too Late. Given that nobody in this civil war is anyone we like — or who particularly likes us — dithering while they kill each other may not be such a bad strategy. But it’s an informative contrast to the humanitarian proclamations that accompanied the Libya intervention, and which would seem — if the Obama Administration actually believed them — to impel a similar intervention here.

Related: From Bad To Worse In Egypt. “The failing Egyptian revolution can’t restore order, can’t secure food, can’t get the economy to run. If things keep on in this direction, the Egyptian people will accept almost any dictatorship, however ugly and however corrupt, that can keep the peace. In the meantime, there’s probably not as much gratitude toward the US as the White House once expected. Egyptians reflecting that they are now significantly less safe and less secure than they used to be probably aren’t happy with the US for helping to grease the skids under the Mubarak government.”