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Cease-Fire in Syria Exposes Heavy Price of Just Buying Time
(New York Times) Neil MacFarquhar - A UN-backed cease-fire has neither stopped the fighting in Syria nor forced the government to pull its troops from civilian neighborhoods. It has been called a failure by activists still dodging bullets on the streets of Syria and by senior Obama administration officials questioned in Congress last week. Despite months of fighting, Western and Arab sanctions that have sapped the national treasury, and defections that have eroded the military, the Syrian government is not on the verge of falling nor abandoning its use of lethal force. The rest of the world, fearing the chaos that further militarizing the conflict might bring, remains reluctant to arm the opposition. In public and privately, senior administration officials made clear that they had no expectation that Syria would implement the Annan plan.