Bernard-Henri Lévy: Regime Change in Damascus

The French philosopher supports Western military intervention in Syria, and sees France leading the charge.

At The Daily Beast, "End the Syria Slaughter Now!":

Is it possible to intervene? What can be done in the face of the Russian and Chinese vetoes in the U.N. Security Council? The answer is not as complicated as those who are determined not to intervene would have us believe. It is the answer that French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave to the representatives of Libya’s Transitional National Council on March 11, 2011, when they asked him what would happen if France and the United States could not persuade the Security Council to go along with their plans. “That would be very unfortunate,” Sarkozy responded. “And we have to do everything we can to keep that from happening, but if we don’t succeed, then it will be necessary, together with the appropriate regional organizations (the Arab League, the African Union), to establish an alternative supervisory authority that will enable us to act.” Indeed, that is just what Susan Rice, the U.S. permanent representative to the Security Council, suggested with respect to Syria on May 30, 2012, following a briefing by Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Kofi Annan’s deputy, who was already beginning to come to grips with the failure of the U.N. mediation. If it did fail, Rice said, the international community would have to consider “whether they’re prepared to take actions outside of the Annan plan and the authority of this Council.” From the American ambassador! In this case, it was a question of law. Or more precisely of the need to amend the law when its provisions conflict with the requirements of natural law and justice. The Russian and Chinese vetoes are not an argument—they’re an alibi, the alibi of those who secretly believe that Assad will be strong enough to crush the insurrection and get us off the hook. The bloodbath is his—the crocodile tears, ours.

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He's not calling for a full-on Iraq-style ground invasion, favoring limited measures like a no-fly zone instead, but I doubt a stepped-up military initiative would avoid a large ground deployment in the long run. Interestingly, BHL sounds a lot like Max Boot on this.