Thus, Russia achieved power-broker status and bases and tested countless weapons in Syria, which it would then use in Ukraine. Iranian militias gained a foothold in addition to Iraq, from which they’ve targeted U.S. troops with rockets and drones and wreaked endless havoc and heartbreak across the Middle East. Terrorists and drug traffickers have gained new ground. Assad and Russia still bomb rebels and civilians in the remaining rebel stronghold, Idlib, in the countryside, and even in refugee camps. The “disappeared” still languish in prisons. Syrians still endure a reign of terror. Yet Syrians still come out en masse to protest for democracy and the end of the Assad regime, as they have in recent months in the province of Sweida.

Assad and Russia’s remorseless military offensive against Syrians has notably intensified since Hamas attacked Israel. And Iranian proxies have since then launched nearly 100 attacks on U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq. Yet the Biden administration, understandably trying to avoid escalation but unacceptably showcasing moral and strategic inertia, has responded with too little, too late.  

The appalling move of some Arab and Western countries toward normalizing relations with Assad reveals the ongoing deficit of U.S. leadership and the continuing absence of “international community” advocacy of human rights. Assad has been welcomed back to the Arab League, from which he’d been shunned due to his atrocities. China is in on the action, assiduously cultivating relations with Arab states and, in September, announcing a “strategic partnership” with the Syrian regime. Members of the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations committees from both parties have argued against President Biden’s acceptance of these normalization efforts and his weak enforcement of Syria sanctions.

China claims to have a “peace plan” for Israel and Gaza. One need only look at the Russia-sponsored “peace process” for Syria to see where this would go. China, Iran, and Russia see the Israel-Hamas war as an opportunity to gain yet more geopolitical and informational ground against the United States and have all increased their antisemitic propaganda.

The U.S., UN, European, and Arab world abandonment of Syria was a significant blow to international norms and democratic principles. Pivots from one region to another that forgot the worldwide interconnectedness of modern threats and simplistic equations of hard power gave enemies of freedom vacuums to fill. In the Middle East and around the world, we see that the West’s languid deterrence, flimsy penalties on aggressors, and willingness to overlook human rights did not buy the longed-for post-Cold War repose. A new Syria policy, with moral and strategic clarity and backbone, would reverberate positively in the region and improve America’s ability to deter its adversaries.

Anne R. Pierce is an author of books and articles on American presidents, American foreign policy, and American society. She has a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, is an appointed member of Princeton University’s James Madison Society, and was a Political Science Series Editor for Transaction Publishers. Follow her @AnneRPierce.

Image: Mohammed Bash / Shutterstock.com.