'Even Human Rights groups are more cautious on Syria...'

"... Human-rights groups are even more cautious. “If Obama were to call for Assad to go, I don’t think it would change things on the ground in any way, shape, or form,” said Joseph Stork, deputy director of the Middle East division of Human Rights Watch, which had been supportive of military action in Libya. In this case, he said, targeted sanctions, he said, were the right move....  The administration did not sanction President Assad, saying it focused on those directly responsible for human-rights abuses. A senior official said the United States would not hesitate to add him to the list if the violence did not stop. But the White House seemed to be calculating that it could still prevail on him to show restraint.

“Our goal is to end the violence and create an opening for the Syrian people’s legitimate aspirations,,” said a spokesman for the National Security Council, Tommy Vietor. .... ..... .....  for the Obama administration, abandoning Mr. Assad has costs. For two years, it cultivated him in the hope that Syria would break the logjam in the Middle East peace process ... ... .... Israel’s sensitivity about Syria is so acute that when reports began circulating this week that Israeli officials were pressing the White House to be less tough on Damascus, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael B. Oren, called reporters to insist that his government was doing nothing of the sort. ... ... “The regime coming down in a speedy, orderly transition to a Sunni government would be a setback for Iran, but that’s not what’s happening,” said Andrew Tabler, a Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “We’re headed for something much messier. The Iranians can play around in that.”