Conservatives call on Obama to establish ‘safe zones’ in Syria

Posted By Josh RoginTuesday, July 24, 2012 - 12:05 PM

Now that the Syrian opposition has established control over territory on the ground, it's time for the United States to help establish "safe zones" inside Syria, a group of mostly conservative experts and former officials said Tuesday.


"We believe it is clear that multilateral diplomacy and non-military pressure, by themselves, will neither compel Assad to step down nor ensure that America's national security interests in Syria and the wider region are protected," read a new letter compiled by the Foreign Policy Initiative and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and sent to U.S. President Barack ObamaTuesday, obtained in advance by The Cable.

"America's national security interests are intertwined with the fate of the Syrian people and the wider region," the letter reads. "The longer we wait to act, the more others with interests contrary to ours will fill the void, limiting America's ability to ensure a multi-sectarian pluralistic Syria. We therefore believe it is long past due for the United States to adopt a strategy that will help the Syrian people to quickly end the Assad regime and actively promote order and stability after the regime's fall."

The letter was signed by 62 foreign-policy hands, most of them conservative. The list of signees includes several former Bush administration officials, such as Elliott Abrams, Karl Rove, Paul Bremer, Robert Joseph, and Douglas Feith, and several advisors to the Mitt Romney campaign, including Eric Edelman, Jamie Fly, Robert Kagan, and Stephen Rademaker. Radwah Ziadeh, a member of the Syrian National Council, also signed.

The signatories call on Obama to use military power to establish safe zones in already liberated areas of Syria to protect civilians there and to counter the threat of the Syrian regime using chemical or biological weapons.

"Such ‘safe zones' would serve as a destination for civilians fleeing violence. They would also provide the country's opposition groups-which have actively stood up to the Assad regime's relentless aggression, and bravely defended their cities, towns, and villages in the absence of decisive international action - a place to train, be equipped, and organize," the letter says.

The letter warns that America's inaction in Syria amounts to "complicity in oppression."

The safe zones would also help the United States and the international community coordinate and deliver nonlethal aid to the rebels and plan for the transition to a post-Assad government, the authors argue. A version of this idea was first proposed publicly by former State Department official Anne-Marie Slaughterin February, and then picked up by Sen. John McCain(R-AZ) in March; critics say the zones would be difficult to defend from a concerted ground and aerial assault.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended the administration's approach in a speech Tuesday morning at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

"As the Assad regime continues its bloody assault on its own people despite crippling sanctions, condemnation, increasing political pressure, they have found support, primarily from Iran, Russia, and China," she said. "More than 100 other nations and organizations have made clear that Assad must step aside in order for a transition to begin."

The Obama administration is supporting the Syrian Justice and Accountability Center, which is compiling evidence of serious abuses and violations of human rights, and the U.N. Commission of Inquiry, which is gathering evidence about the crisis, Clinton said. She also said the United States is increasing its aid to the opposition.

"This is a very complicated and difficult set of circumstances on the ground. And yet we know that the sooner it ends, the less violence there will be and the less chance for extremism to take hold," Clinton said. "But it will be unfortunate if indeed the Assad regime and those around him decide that it's an existential struggle for them and they will maintain and even increase the level of violent response."

Romney has not come out in favor of arming the opposition or establishing safe zones in Syria, but he has been highly critical of Obama's diplomacy at the United Nations and his administration's outreach to Russia on the issue.

"While Russia and Iran have rushed to support Bashar al-Assad and thousands have been slaughtered, President Obama has abdicated leadership and subcontracted U.S. policy to Kofi Annan and the United Nations," Romney said on July 19. "Under this president, American influence and respect for our position around the world is at a low ebb."
Read the full FPI/FDD letter after the jump:
Dear Mr. President:

The situation in Syria is, as Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said on July 18th, "spinning out of control." Recent events make clear that the United States must play a more proactive role than it has heretofore in ensuring the end of the Assad regime and shaping a post-Assad Syria. Even prior to recent high-level assassinations and opposition gains, Assad's security forces reportedly began to move chemical weapons out of storage, raising the specter that some of the world's most dangerous weapons could be used against the Syrian people or fall into the hands of terrorists.

We believe it is clear that multilateral diplomacy and non-military pressure, by themselves, will neither compel Assad to step down nor ensure that America's national security interests in Syria and the wider region are protected. The Assad regime has repeatedly violated the ceasefire brokered by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, just as it disregarded earlier efforts by the Arab League. Russia and China yet again used their vetoes on July 19th to prevent the Security Council from imposing more severe sanctions on Syria. Meanwhile, Iran continues to materially assist the Syrian dictatorship's crackdown on its citizens, underlining Assad's importance to Tehran.

America's national security interests are intertwined with the fate of the Syrian people and the wider region. Indeed, Syria's escalating conflict now threatens to directly affect the country's neighbors, including Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Israel, and could provide an opening for terrorist groups like al Qaeda to exploit. The longer we wait to act, the more others with interests contrary to ours will fill the void, limiting America's ability to ensure a multi-sectarian pluralistic Syria. We therefore believe it is long past due for the United States to adopt a strategy that will help the Syrian people to quickly end the Assad regime and actively promote order and stability after the regime's fall.

We urge you to take immediate steps, in close and continuing consultation with the Congress, to work with regional partners to establish air-patrolled "safe zones" covering already liberated areas within Syria, using military power not only to protect these zones from further aggression by the Assad regime's military and irregular forces, but also to neutralize the threat posed by the Syrian dictatorship's chemical and biological weapons.

Such "safe zones" would serve as a destination for civilians fleeing violence. They would also provide the country's opposition groups-which have actively stood up to the Assad regime's relentless aggression, and bravely defended their cities, towns, and villages in the absence of decisive international action - a place to train, be equipped, and organize. Indeed, "safe zones" would make it easier for the United States and like-minded nations to reliably provide critical non-lethal aid, including secure communications technologies and field hospital equipment, as well as self-defense assistance, to carefully vetted recipients. "Safe zones" could also serve as a venue for U.S. and allied officials to work with Syria's future leaders to plan and prepare for a post-Assad Syria and explore options, such as an international peacekeeping force, that could limit chaos and sectarian conflict and prevent the proliferation of Assad's weapons of mass destruction.

America's continued inaction in Syria risks becoming what you called in your 2009 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, "complicity in oppression," and only serves to undermine our interests and embolden our enemies. It is clear that the United States cannot outsource its strategic and moral responsibilities to cynical great powers, regional actors who do not fully share our values, or international mediators. Only resolved U.S. leadership has the potential to halt the bloodshed and ensure the emergence of a Syria that advances America's national security interests. We urge you to exercise such leadership immediately.

Sincerely,

Ammar Abdulhamid
Elliott Abrams
Fouad Ajami
Tony Badran
Paul Berman
Max Boot
Ellen Bork
L. Paul Bremer
Matthew R. J. Brodsky
Seth Cropsey
Larry Cox
Jack David
Toby Dershowitz
Larry Diamond
Paula Dobriansky
Mark Dubowitz
Nicholas Eberstadt
Eric Edelman
Douglas Feith
Jamie M. Fly
Reuel Marc Gerecht
Abe Greenwald
John Hannah
William Inboden
Bruce Pitcairn Jackson
Ash Jain
Kenneth D. M. Jensen
Allison Johnson
Robert G. Joseph
Robert Kagan
Lawrence Kaplan
Irina Krasovskaya
William Kristol
Michael Ledeen
Robert J. Lieber
Tod Lindberg
Herbert London
Mary Beth Long
Ann Marlowe
Cliff May
Robert C. McFarlane
Alan Mendoza
Ausama Monajed
Josh Muravchik
Meghan O'Sullivan
Martin Peretz
Danielle Pletka
Stephen Rademaker
Karl Rove
Kori Schake
Jonathan Schanzer
Randy Scheunemann
Gary J. Schmitt
Lee Smith
Henry D. Sokolski
William Taft
Daniel Twining
Kenneth Weinstein
Michael Weiss
Leon Wieseltier
Robert Zarate
Radwan Ziadeh


Conservatives call on Obama to establish