For whatever reason, I’ve been irked by Kofi Annan’s efforts in Syria. They were admirable, but he was being serially ignored and punked by Syria and the UN was less than supportive thanks to the Chinese and the Russians; although to be fair, you need to throw in some bureaucratic irresolution from the UN itself. But most of all I felt for his self-respect. It’s just not useful to keep banging your head against a wall. Of lies and obscured intents, both on the part of the Syrian government and the rebels. No one wanted a ceasefire! Ergo, it wasn’t going to happen. These dukes were going to have to be put up and vented. At some point you have to stop, retreat and reassess, before you reengage. It’s certainly time to do that for him. Especially with the revelation that the US Government is supporting the rebels.
Annan can come back to this, but he needs to do so with the reality of the shifting landscape firmly in his grasp and some proposals that account for these realities. Anything less would be futile.
