WASHINGTON--Bashar al-Assad has lost all hope of victory against an uprising that has metastasized — through the atrocities committed by his regime — into a corrosive civil war. By his own confession, Assad is trapped in a no-win conundrum, between determined rebels seeking to eliminate him and bruised loyalists susceptible to betrayal. Syria appears fated to continue its descent into further brutality, barring a realignment of international interests that ends the ongoing calamity.
Alas, that outcome is far from imminent. Some international stakeholders — Iran and Russia in particular — have an active interest in prolonging the Syrian crisis. Others, notably the United States, believe that intervention is impossible without international consensus. The quest for this elusive unanimity has resulted in only greater bloodshed and, without a change in course, may result in an even more dramatic humanitarian catastrophe. A coalition of the willing capable of halting Syria’s internecine violence and the disintegration of the regional order is long overdue.
