In the meantime, Syria and its daily carnage have become the dreariest and most numbing foreign-policy issue in American public opinion, despite the danger that the violence could spread across the Middle East (particularly to neighboring Iraq and Lebanon). The export of Syria’s civil war is likely to consume far more time in the coming months than either candidate wants to admit.
类似地，奥巴马和罗姆尼可能会策略性地同意不讨论关于叙利亚悲剧的政策选择问题，因为两人都没有兴趣解决其内在复杂性，而这正是促成最终政治解决方案的国际支持的关键。与此同时，叙利亚以及天天发生在那里的大屠杀最无聊的外交政策问题，美国民意对此已经麻木了，尽管叙利亚暴力很有可能蔓延到整个中东地区（特别是相邻的伊拉克和黎巴嫩）。叙利亚内战的输出可能在未来几个月中耗费大量时间，这是两位候选人都不愿意承认的。