And if Damascus does become Pyongyang on the Levant?
by David Atkins
Max Fisher at the Washington Post has an interesting take today on the notion that Assad may adopt the Kim Jong-Il approach to international negotiations over its chemical weapons, stringing the world along for months and years while making no real concessions.
That may in fact be the case. It’s even likely. But that’s only a significant problem for those who believe the objective really is to take away Assad’s chemical weapons stockpiles, rather than prevent him from using them. If the objective is to stop more children from dying by sarin gas, then it doesn’t much matter who has control of the stockpiles as long as they don’t get used.
The argument does, however, bring to light the fact that the world still hasn’t figured out what to do about intractable, brutal dictators who blackmail the world while abusing their people. Both war and sanctions tend only to hurt the people the dictators oppress, while freezing assets and restricting travel doesn’t seem to have much effect. If the world has an interest in controlling murderous dictators, perhaps the first step should be the creation of a consistent set of protocols to maximize the inconvenience to the dictators, their family and their friends.
As it stands, international policy seems to be to hurt the victims with economic and military violence while the elites still eat caviar. It’s time to turn that on its head by removing the focus from sanctions and warfare, and increasing the focus on making the lives of the oppressors as miserable as possible.
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