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The Lessons of Failure in Syria
(Washington Post) Editorial - Kofi Annan turned in his resignation as UN special envoy to Syria on Thursday, but his mission was over months ago. It was doomed by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who was never serious about peace. The UN Security Council sent unarmed monitors into an intensifying war zone in Syria without a consensus of the leading powers to back them up. It was wishful thinking to believe that Assad would be coaxed into retirement. The events of the past 18 months suggest that the younger Assad has matched his father's record of despotism: He is willing to slaughter an unlimited number of his own people in order to cling to power. Now that diplomacy has utterly failed to stop him, it is time for the Obama administration to consider measures that stand a real chance of accelerating his downfall - beginning with greater material support for the opposition.