Vladimir Putin’s carpet-bombing campaign in Syria just notched up its first real victory: The Obama administration surrendered.
That is, Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday de facto abandoned Washington’s “Assad must go” line.
The Syrian civil war started when “President” Bashar al-Assad answered peaceful protests with bullets and then barrel bombs. That prompted the chaos that gave an opening to ISIS — the terrorist “state” with which Assad has often allied, even coordinating assaults on rebel strongholds. (He’s also been buying ISIS oil.)
Yet Assad was still losing — until Putin intervened in October. Russia’s been bombing ever since — hitting ISIS a few times, but mostly the rebels, including those Washington had helped.
Team Obama’s answer was first to tut-tut, and then to appease — seeking to negotiate a common front with Putin, in hopes he’d put more teeth into the hapless US “degrade and ultimately destroy” plan.
Which brings us to Tuesday, when Kerry, after meeting Putin in Moscow, announced: “The United States and our partners are not seeking so-called regime change.”
More: The US focus now isn’t on “what can or cannot be done immediately about Assad” but rather on a magical mystery peace process that will let Syrians make a “decision for the future of Syria.”
Swell — if any Syrians are left to decide after Assad, Putin and ISIS have their way.
Kerry’s concession buys nothing — not from Assad, who started the war, and not from Russia, which only cares about keeping its military bases on Assad-controlled land.
Fine: White House press secretary Josh Earnest insisted, after Kerry’s bombshell, that US policy on Assad is he still “must go.” When he dies of old age, maybe.
John Kerry has earned his place in history — as the photo everyone can use to illustrate PT Barnum’s famous line, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”