The Vienna talks on Syria are a start. But we need a leap of imagination
To write about Syria is to drown slowly in moral quicksand. It is not just that the situation is complex. It is because we have seen over the last four years the collapse of a country, and more importantly a whole society, while the world has stood and watched: a protracted agony in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing.
We have taken our lead from President Obama, whose inaction has been parsed by his supporters as masterly caution. As we watch the global order established in 1945 crumble, the terror threat from Islamic State spread and further waves of refugees and economic migrants wash on to Greek beaches never to return to the countries that desperately need them, we interpret our torpor as a rational response to the inevitable moral ambiguities of the Middle East.… Seguir leyendo »