In Syria, the human rights crisis continues to deteriorate. The government has instituted a major crackdown, with such a high level of arrests that soccer fields are now becoming detention sites. Peaceful protests are disrupted with gunfire aimed at intimidating and dispersing crowds. The UN estimates that 850 people have been killed in the pro-democracy movement in Syria.

Since Assad's brutality began, U.S. opposition has been tepid.The State Department imposed sanctions on some government officials, but this proved to be ineffective, since most Syrian assets are held in European banks. The U.S. did not call for Assad's departure or for more aggressive tactics at the UN Security Council. Our ambassador is still in Damascus and theirs is still in Washington, even after an embassy staffer was detained, hooded, and beaten by Syrian authorities. One can see the affect of U.S. sanctions has had on Syria thus far, when one of Assad's officials said the United States' rebukes "were not too bad."