Solutions In Syria

56:17

June 04, 2012

Syria gets grimmer by the day. How bad could this get -– and what in the world can be done to put a stop to it.

This image made from amateur video released by Shaam News Network and accessed Friday, June 1, 2012, purports to show the bodies of Syrian workers who were killed near Qusair, in Homs province, Syria. Gunmen killed several workers at a state-owned fertilizer factory in a volatile central Syrian province, activists said Friday, the second execution-style shooting reported in Syria in less than a week. The shooting near the town of Qusair in Homs province occurred Thursday as the workers were on their way to their jobs in a bus that came under fire, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. (AP) — This image made from amateur video released by Shaam News Network and accessed Friday, June 1, 2012, purports to show the bodies of Syrian workers who were killed near Qusair, in Homs province, Syria. (AP)

The fighting and killing in Syria is a brutal test of the world’s tolerance for slaughter. The regime of Bashar al Assad must go and will go, says U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But it is definitely not gone.

In the village of Houla, 34 women, 49 children, entire families, gunned down at close range. Thousands dead over many months. From neighboring Turkey, the prime minister decries the abandonment in Syria of “reason, sense, conscience, intelligence and mercy.” In blood. So now what?

This hour, On Point: what to do about Syria.
-Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Andrew Tabler, senior fellow, Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Author of "In the Lion's Den: An Eyewitness Account of Washington's Battle With Assad's Syria." You can read his latest piece on Syria here.

Fawaz Gerges, professor of Middle Eastern politics and international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His latest book is Obama and the Middle East: The End of America’s Moment? You can read an excerpt here.

From Tom's Reading List

Foreign Policy "Many in Washington are frustrated, and are urging the United States do, well, something. But a key question lingers for Americans: Do they actually want to use their own military might to stop the killing in Syria?"

Al Jazeera "Speaking to Al Jazeera from Geneva, Laura Dupuy Lasserre, the permanent representative of Uruguay to the UN and also the president of the Human Rights Council, said the council holds the Syrian government responsible for the violence in Houla."

Los Angeles Times "Allegations of a fresh massacre in Syria surfaced Friday as activists said security forces shot and killed 12 factory workers returning home from work in a bus near the town of Qusayr in the restive province of Homs."

This program aired on June 4, 2012.