July 25, 2013 12:26 AM
By Michael Young
The Daily Star

The Obama administration has time and again approached Syria by taking one step forward and two backward.

That is very unlikely since President Barack Obama’s decision to send weapons is more an effort to avoid doing more in Syria – a sop to the Syrians that buys the U.S. wiggling room – than a real change in American attitudes.

The missile systems are a deterrent against the use of Western air power in Syria, but if the Russians were worried, Dempsey’s doubts, and Obama’s evasiveness over Syria, must have reassured them that American jets would not soon arrive.

The Obama administration appears to be increasingly resigned to the prospect that the war in Syria will continue for a long time, and that Assad will probably remain in office.

That the United States is apparently not preparing for Syria’s crack-up is in itself remarkable.

Nothing in the American outlook truly worries the Russians, as they can now see that the U.S. military has no appetite to involve itself in Syria, and Obama no intention of wasting political capital by seriously addressing the situation there.

The U.S. will continue to keep Syria’s war at arm’s length, whatever happens.