29 January 2012 | In Moscow, There's a Lot to Admire about Assad

Maybe Russia is jealous. Maybe Vladimir Putin sees a lot to admire in Bashar al-Assad, in the way a henchman of Ming the Merciless did when seeing an image of Adolf Hitler: "Now he showed promise!"

It's not easy to understand why Moscow is pushing against the Arab League's plan to respond to the failure of its (ridiculous and useless) observation mission in Syria. Since they yield veto power on the Security Council, it's likely that they want to use the dead of Syria in their bid to undermine Western influence. I mean, really, what is the life of a dead Syrian when you can prevent a Libya-style bombing of Damascus to bring about regime change?

Or maybe Russia likes seeing the government go after its own citizens, in a way that can't be accomplished there. Wouldn't Putin like to put all those protesters against him reclaiming the reins of power into the ground? But he's constrained because that would look bad: at least with Assad, he can enjoy snuffing out the opposition vicariously.

But in the meantime, the carnage goes unabated and what *not* to do is coming down to a vote that will have no teeth. Loudmouths in Qatar can talk about sending troops to Syria to stop the violence but Arab leaders–reactionary, cowardly—are not going to take the first step. There are too many concerns about "Arab unity," a continuing fiction that always comes to the fore as an excuse not to do anything. So there's a ridiculous plan to ask Assad to step aside and hand over power to a deputy.

That such an idea has even been broached underscores the absolutely stupidity and fecklessness of Middle Eastern regional leaders. And I highly doubt it's some clever ruse to use it as an excuse to send Arab troops there because like I said, leaders there are too spineless to do anything. They'll take Assad's warning of violating Syria's sovereignty seriously enough to just throw up their hands and shuffle papers and talk of more emergency meetings.

Now excuse me while *I* throw up.