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Abstract

The murder of a US ambassador is a shocking event, so rare that the last time it happened the Russians were in Afghanistan. The Libyan government has made all the right overtures in response to violence that was instigated by a shallow YouTube video by a self-described American-Israeli who calls Islam a “cancer.” But the larger implications of the killing of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans won’t be felt in Libya. They will be felt in Syria. The tragedy in Libya will put serious brakes on calls for international humanitarian intervention in Syria. The drumbeat for Western powers to end Bashar Assad’s regime once and for all had only grown stronger in the last weeks of August and into September. And for obvious reasons. Syria is now more prone to violence than Iraq was at the height of the war there.

Citation

Kayyem, Juliette. "It’s the Syrians Who Will Pay for Murders of Americans in Libya." Boston Globe, September 12, 2012.