Need to spike the guns

The great tragedy is that the Yemen and Syrian crises don’t give themselves the opportunity to end the strife even when that opportunity presents itself.
The cease-fire in Yemen was broken even before the Swiss-based peace talks had gathered traction.
The sounds of gunfire and the firing of missiles puts a cramp in the proceedings.
One hopes that rebels do not let go of that slim rope of these talks and understand that such a major breakthrough may not come around again anytime soon.
The Saudi-led coalition has shown immense patience and offered several options including cease-fires on humanitarian grounds but each such window seems to slam shut without the rebels taking in the view.
The sharp conflict in the city of Haradh, Yemen, over the week-end is a grim indicator of what one might expect if the Swiss initiative goes down the slope and the fighting intensifies in other enclaves.
This could mean another bout of protracted battle with no winners. What else can be done if the insurgents are not prepared to sit at the table.
The stakes are so high ... the future existence of the country is in jeopardy and it makes no sense to continue warring against this backdrop.
Except for the coalition’s calls and efforts to help the civilian population, the hundreds of thousands of weary Yemenese continue to be a rising statistic in the columns of the dead, the injured and the displaced, a whole generation sacrificed without logic.
At the same time the Syrian impasse continues unabated. Would it not make more sense to spike the guns, then sit down to strategic talks that would signpost the road to a transparent election some eighteen months down the road.
While Security Council resolutions and the Geneva I plan accounts of the possibility of Assad’s departure, to actually make it happen could delay even the illusion of peace by an unacceptably long time and at a very heavy price in life.
The priority should always be to stop the killing and the violence and let people come home.
Five years of civil war can coalesce into eighteen months of United Nations’ supervised governance that leads to a democratically elected government.
One has to understand that a shattered nation has to set up systems to hold the elections and that takes an agreement to get on the same page and work toward that very intent.
Syria deserves this as does every Syrian.