The clamor by Britain, France, Turkey and Arab powers for the U.S. to help provide more direct and even military support to Syria‘s rebellion only becomes a dilemma for the Obama Administration if the fractious Syrian opposition is united under a single leadership acceptable to the West. Without a credible address through which greater support could be channeled, it remains a non-starter—and some 20 months into a civil war that has claimed more than 20,000 lives, Syria’s opposition remains politically fragmented, while the armed insurgency is waged by scores of disparate and localized fighting groups.
Thus the effort, still underway Friday in Qatar’s capital, Doha, to forge a new leadership body uniting the forces most active on the ground in the political and military struggle behind a moderate political consensus. Predictably, perhaps, that goal is proving elusive after a week’s worth of talks.
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