Syrian Attack On US Embassy: Everyone Has Sharp Retort Except State Department

The U.S. State Department on Monday formally condemned Syria for failing to protect the U.S. embassy complex in Damascus from a violent assault it said was encouraged by a pro-government Syrian television station.

"A television station that is heavily influenced by Syrian authorities encouraged this violent demonstration," a State Department spokesperson said in a statement."

"We strongly condemn the Syrian government's refusal to protect our embassy, and demand compensation for damages. We call on the Syrian government to fulfill its obligations to its own citizens as well," the statement said.
State Department response to Syrian attack on US embassy

Fortunately, by contrast, Robert Ford makes his appointment to Syria worthwhile with his very public condemnation of Syria:

U.S. ambassador to Syria Robert Ford posted a decidedly undiplomatic condemnation on his Wall yesterday in response to a precursor demonstration. “If they cared about their fellow Syrians the protesters would stop throwing this food at us and donate it to those Syrians who don’t have enough to eat,” Ford wrote. “And how ironic that the Syrian Government lets an anti-U.S. demonstration proceed freely while their security thugs beat down olive branch-carrying peaceful protesters elsewhere.”

In case anyone missed it, Ford’s missive had an Arabic translation below the English. It’s at 770 comments and 86 Likes as of this writing. And that’s typical of the embassy’s Facebook page. It’s way less mealy-mouthed than the Obama administration’s IRL diplomacy.

Obama has been similarly criticized by his own people--also via social media:

P.J. Crowley, President Obama's former State Department spokesman who has become a critical outside voice since resigning earlier this year, called out his old boss over Syria on his Twitter feed this morning.

"It's odd that Obama thinks RepWeiner should resign, but not Assad. Sending lewd tweets violates public service, but not killing people?"

Compare that with the Obama administration, which at first claimed that Assad had the potential to be a reformer--and now that to no one's surprise this has been proven to be nonsense, Obama's policy toward Syria is being compared to his reaction to Libya, and found wanting.

That is all the more pathetic on the one hand because of the comparison of the US response to the action the French took:

The French guards fired into the air, wounding two, and the demonstrators stopped. Three French embassy workers were injured. At the U.S. embassy while Syrian guards fired teargas, the U.S. Marines didn’t fire and the mob surged into the embassy breaking windows and wrecking at least part of the building for two and a half hours as Syrian security forces stood by.

and because of the revelation, as Israel Matzav notes, that Syria pulled the same stunt it did on Naksa Day:

Israel Radio cites an eyewitness from the neighborhood in Damascus in which the US embassy is located who claims that four busloads of Alawites were bussed in from Tartus to attack the US embassy and that they used clubs to break down the doors.

Demanding reparations from Syria just isn't going to cut it.

Technorati Tag: Syria and Obama.