51 U.S. Diplomats Urge Strikes Against Assad in Syria
WASHINGTON
— More than 50 State Department diplomats have signed an internal memo
sharply critical of the Obama administration’s policy in Syria, urging the United States to carry out military strikes against the government of President Bashar al-Assad to stop its persistent violations of a cease-fire in the country’s five-year-old civil war.
The
memo, a draft of which was provided to The New York Times by a State
Department official, says American policy has been “overwhelmed” by the
unrelenting violence in Syria. It calls for “a judicious use of
stand-off and air weapons, which would undergird and drive a more
focused and hard-nosed U.S.-led diplomatic process.”
Such
a step would represent a radical shift in the administration’s approach
to the civil war in Syria, and there is little evidence that President Obama
has plans to change course. Mr. Obama has emphasized the military
campaign against the Islamic State over efforts to dislodge Mr. Assad.
Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict, led by Secretary of State John Kerry, have all but collapsed.
But
the memo, filed in the State Department’s “dissent channel,”
underscores the deep rifts and lingering frustration within the
administration over how to deal with a war that has killed more than
400,000 people.
The
State Department set up the channel during the Vietnam War as a way for
employees who had disagreements with policies to register their protest
with the secretary of state and other top officials, without fear of
reprisal. While dissent cables are not that unusual, the number of
signatures on this document, 51, is extremely large, if not
unprecedented.
The
names on the memo are almost all midlevel officials — many of them
career diplomats — who have been involved in the administration’s Syria
policy over the last five years, at home or abroad. They range from a
Syria desk officer in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs to a former
deputy to the American ambassador in Damascus.
While
there are no widely recognized names, higher-level State Department
officials are known to share their concerns. Mr. Kerry himself has
pushed for stronger American action against Syria, in part to force a
diplomatic solution on Mr. Assad. The president has resisted such
pressure, and has been backed up by his military commanders, who have
raised questions about what would happen in the event that Mr. Assad was
forced from power — a scenario that the draft memo does not address.
Document
State Department Draft Dissent Memo on Syria
In a draft version of a dissent memo filed with the
State Department's senior leadership, dozens of diplomats and other
mid-level officials called for military strikes against President Bashar
al-Assad of Syria.
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