Washington Post Editorial, "Syrian President al-Assad Shows No Sign of Backing Down": Obama Administration Appears Foolish and Weak

A Washington Post editorial entitled "Syrian President al-Assad shows no sign of backing down" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/syrian-president-al-assad-shows-no-sign-of-backing-down/2013/05/30/673b91a2-c949-11e2-8da7-d274bc611a47_story.html?hpid=z3), decries Obama administration foreign policy involving Syria. The opinion piece states:

"Clearly, the strategy that Secretary of State John F. Kerry announced in February has failed. The idea was that the United States would, by providing additional support to the opposition, persuade the Assad clique that its cause was lost, opening the way to a negotiated process in which Mr. Assad would yield power. But Mr. Assad doesn’t believe he is losing — and he is not wrong in claiming that his fortunes have risen in the past several months.

. . . .

What’s harder to understand is why Mr. Kerry continues to vigorously pursue the conference, having failed to accomplish the necessary predicate of changing the balance of power on the ground. Unfortunately, the most plausible answer is that the administration has allowed itself to be played by Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, who is seeking to restore Moscow’s influence in the Middle East by thwarting the U.S. goal of regime change in Syria. Not for the first time, President Obama and his aides appear to have bet that Mr. Putin would turn on Mr. Assad and help force him from power. In doing so, they have fundamentally misread the Russian ruler and his intentions.

As we have written previously, the only hope for an acceptable political settlement in Syria lies in an intervention that would decisively shift the balance of Syria’s war — through arms supplies to the rebels and airstrikes to eliminate the regime’s air power. If Mr. Obama is unwilling to take such steps, he ought also to eschew diplomacy that makes his administration appear foolish as well as weak."

Or stated undiplomatically, John (Assad is "my dear friend") Kerry is a jackass.

Obama should "eschew diplomacy that makes his administration appear foolish as well as weak"? Oh really? And how would the Washington Post characterize American negotiations by way of the P5+1, headed by nincompoop Catherine Ashton, over Iran's nuclear weapons development program?

Embroiled in multiple scandals at home, is the Obama administration still capable of keeping its eye on the ball overseas?