Hillary has ridden into town and today at the Munich Security Conference she has called for Europe to join the United States in isolating "tyrants such as Syrian president Bashar Assad" and in promoting democracy in the Arab world. No need to draw comparisons with the "democratic" system in her own country where the military industrial complex set the agenda. However, is she talking about the type of "democracy" that Uncle Sam has been promoting for decades in the region and continues to promote in Saudi, Bahrain, Jordan and elsewhere?
The hypocrisy is mind boggling and the platitudes and pathos coming from Hillary and her friends, has, of course, nothing to do with democracy and everything to do with the United States and its allies own agendas in the Middle East. Therefore, while it might be good for Syria if the Assad regime were to throw in the towel, there is sufficient reason to worry about what might come afterwards. Indeed, it is with this in mind that we should greet the news that "Russia and China have vetoed a UN security council resolution calling for the Syrian president to step down."
However, more importantly, while she can contend that in blocking the resolution China and Russia “bear responsibility for the horrors that are occurring on the ground in Syria.” there is perhaps a welcome development today and that is that we might be seeing the end of Uncle Sam as the self-rightous sole global policeman. Moreover, although we should have no illusions about either China or Russia, any move away from a unilateralism that ignores international law can be no bad thing. After the vote William Hague asked the question; "How many more need to die before Russia and China allow the UN Security Council to act? He could be reminded that today's vote was a result of the Security Council acting and once again functioning the way it was intended to at its conception.
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