WASHINGTON -- More than 50 State Department diplomats have signed an internal memo critical of President Barack Obama's policy in Syria, urging the administration to carry out military strikes against the Syrian President Bashar Assad's government.
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The memo, a draft of which was provided by a State Department official, says U.S. policy has been "overwhelmed" by the unrelenting violence in Syria during its civil war, now in its sixth year. It calls for "a judicious use of stand-off and air weapons, which would undergird and drive a more focused and hard-nosed U.S.-led diplomatic process."
The administration's approach to the civil war has emphasized the military campaign against the Islamic State over efforts to dislodge Assad. Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict, led by Secretary of State John Kerry, have all but collapsed.
The memo was filed in the State Department's "dissent channel." The State Department set up the channel during the Vietnam War as a way for employees who had disagreements with policies to register their protest with the secretary of state and other top officials, without fear of reprisal. While dissent cables are not that unusual, the number of signatures on this document, 51, is extremely large.
The names on the memo are almost all midlevel officials -- many of them career diplomats -- who have been involved in the administration's Syria policy over the past five years, at home or abroad. They range from a Syria desk officer in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs to a former deputy to the U.S. ambassador in Damascus.
While there are no widely recognized names, higher-level State Department officials are known to share their concerns. Kerry, himself, has pushed for stronger action against Syria, in part to force a diplomatic solution on Assad. The president has resisted such pressure and has been backed up by his military commanders, who have raised questions about what would happen in the event that Assad was forced from power.
The State Department spokesman, John Kirby, declined to comment on the memo, which top officials had just received. But he said Kerry respected the process as a way for employees "to express policy views candidly and privately to senior leadership."
In the memo, the State Department officials wrote that the Assad government's continuing violations of the partial cease-fire, known as a cessation of hostilities, will doom efforts to broker a political settlement because Assad will feel no pressure to negotiate with the moderate opposition or other factions fighting him. The government's barrel bombing of civilians, it said, is the "root cause of the instability that continues to grip Syria and the broader region."
"The moral rationale for taking steps to end the deaths and suffering in Syria, after five years of brutal war, is evident and unquestionable," it said. "The status quo in Syria will continue to present increasingly dire, if not disastrous, humanitarian, diplomatic and terrorism-related challenges."
The memo acknowledged that military action would have risks, not the least further tensions with Russia, which has intervened in the war on Assad's behalf and helped negotiate a cease-fire. The officials insisted that they were not "advocating for a slippery slope that ends in a military confrontation with Russia," but rather a credible threat of military action to keep Assad in line.
Once that threat was in place, the memo said, Kerry could undertake a diplomatic mission similar to the one he led with Iran on its nuclear program. It would involve negotiations with the government, as well as influential regional players like Iran and Saudi Arabia.
The expression of dissent came a week after Assad showed renewed defiance of the United States and other countries, vowing to retake "every inch" of his country from his enemies. The cease-fire, which Kerry helped negotiate in Munich last winter, has never fully taken hold. Assad has continued to block humanitarian convoys despite a warning that the United Nations would begin airdrops of food to starving towns.
Last month, Kerry rejected the suggestion that the United States and its allies would never use force to stop the bombings or enforce humanitarian access.
"If President Assad has come to a conclusion, there's no Plan B," Kerry said, "then he's come to a conclusion that is totally without any foundation whatsoever and even dangerous."
Obama has shown little sign of shifting his focus from the campaign against the Islamic State.
In the memo, the State Department officials argued that military action against Assad would help the fight against the Islamic State because it would bolster moderate Sunnis, who are necessary allies against the extremist group.
"Crucially, Syria's Sunni population continues to view the Assad regime as the primary enemy in the conflict," they wrote.
During a debate in June 2013, after the Assad government had used chemical weapons against its own people, Kerry brandished a State Department report that argued that the United States needed to respond militarily or Assad would view it as "green light for continued CW use."
Three years later, the sense of urgency at the State Department has not diminished. The memo concludes, "It is time that the United States, guided by our strategic interests and moral convictions, lead a global effort to put an end to this conflict once and for all."
A Section on 06/17/2016