After Shooting Over 1,000 Syrians, Does Syria Shooting Down A Turkish Plane Matter?

Max Boot asks whether after getting away with killing over 1,000 unarmed civilians--Has Assad Made a Fatal Mistake?

The downfall of dictators is often their stupidity, arrogance, and unbridled aggression. Saddam Hussein might have stayed in power if he had simply admitted not having weapons of mass destruction. Muammar Qaddafi could have survived if he had not made blood-curdling statements about massacring everyone in Benghazi.
And Bashar al-Assad would have a greater chance of survival had not his aircraft defenses shot down a Turkish Air Force F-4 yesterday.

What does it say about the West if indeed dictators, murderer, and supporters of terrorism like Saddam Hussein and Muammar Qaddafi indeed could have continued their regime until a ripe old age if not accidentally crossing a red line no one realized was there?

As for Assad, it does seem that he could go on killing his own people as long as supplies last. Whether shooting down Turkey's plane will have an impact remains to be seen, and even if it does--who really thinks that Turkey will undertake a program on a par with what took down Hussein and Qaddafi.

Boot suggests what might come next:

• Turkey might increase its aid to the Syrian opposition
• "Safe Zones" might be created within Syria
• NATO intervention could become a reality

After the weak response we have seen so far, only the first possibility seems likely.

Max Boot concludes:

The anti-aircraft gunners who brought down the Turkish jet could not have done more damage to their leader if they had tried.

Hard to believe, since the soldiers who have carried out the death of over 1,000 Syrian civilians haven't

Technorati Tag: Syria and Turkey.