ASSAD IS IMPERVIOUS TO THE TOLL OF HIS ACTIONS.

he visited at Hmeimim, who supplied the weaponry and manpower needed to reverse the tide that was running against him.

To hold onto his shreds of authority, Assad has accepted Syria’s new status as a client state of Russian President Vladimir Putin, just as Soviet bloc countries used to bow to Moscow during the Cold War. He has contributed to a death toll estimated as high as 400,000, tens of thousands of wounded, the displacement of more than six million people within Syria and the flight of five million more in search of peace elsewhere. Though Moscow and Damascus deny it, Assad’s regime is widely believed to have used chemical weapons and barrel bombs against civilians. The Trump administration, less tentative in its policy than its predecessor, launched 59 cruise missiles in response to a gas attack two months ago, and warned Monday it had detected signs that another chemical attack was being prepared, warning that Assad would pay “a heavy price” should it go ahead.

But how heavy a price could Washington extract? More deaths? Ruined infrastructure? International condemnation? Assad has made clear he is impervious to the toll of his actions. Russia continues to prop up his regime, while Iran fires missiles at ISIL targets in Syria and warns the U.S. it is “playing with fire” by making threats to Assad. Russia’s foreign minister said Moscow would respond “proportionally and with dignity” to any U.S. provocation, increasing fears that Washington and Moscow are heading towards an inevitable showdown over the conflict.

That might suit all the main parties. President Donald Trump could use a diversion to draw attention away from the many troubles besetting his young administration. Putin could once again impress fellow Russians with his refusal to bend to the West’s despised democracies, and Assad could be certain his Russian benefactors would move heaven and earth to keep him in power rather than cede an inch to his enemies.

There may still be adherents to “soft power,” the quaint Canadian notion that despots and dictators can be swayed by reason, that diplomacy is the balm that eases conflict and soothes the road to peace, and that Canada’s natural place in the world is to provide the earnest envoys needed to find common ground between sworn enemies. Despite a tougher tone taken recently by Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland — who has been banned from Russia for having a bad attitude — the Trudeau government continues to pursue a seat on the Security Council on the pretext that the United Nations is the place to deal with such issues and a seat at the big table will add weight to Canada’s voice.

Fat chance. Assad is deaf to loud voices and Moscow has a permanent veto to wield at the UN. It takes muscle, and a willingness to use it, to displace a tyrant as oblivious to suffering as Bashar Assad. He remains a blight on humankind because the powers with the ability to oust him lack his tolerance for blood.