SUPPOSE Syria was Libya, would the United States have waited for the death of more than 10,000 people since January 2011, before feeble attempts to apply pressure on the Bashar al Assad regime that is slaughtering Syrians, most of them unarmed civilians?

Would it have taken the death of American, French, and British journalists to draw proper attention to the tragedies going on as the world debates whether it can intervene? Is Syria – and America’s support for Assad – not another statement on the hypocrisy of America, and the countries that call themselves world powers?

Assad is killing his people. He is deaf to the international community that has been condemning the killings. For more than three weeks, he has been bombing Homs, killing civilians who are trapped in their homes, running out of food, water, and other basics. Homs is a stronghold of the opposition that is asking the regime to democratise.

Riots in Syria followed the ones last year in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Morocco and other Arab countries that were asking their leaders to be accountable to the people.

In most of the countries, elections have not held for decades. Earlier in the month, America recalled its ambassador in Damascus, practically shutting down the embassy. It entrusted the Polish diplomatic delegation in Damascus with responsibility for emergency consular services for Americans. This should not be mistaken for a diplomatic tiff between America and Syria.

The world’s sole super power was protecting its citizens. Should its ambassador not have remained in Damascus to monitor Assad? Would Washington not have been able to exert more influence on Assad that way? America looks away while Assad kills defenceless children and women.

Will America send international forces into Syria and take out Assad? It will not. Assad is a US ally and strategic partner. The standards for human rights evaluation of his regime and others that support the US must be different.

Early last year, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heightened the hypocrisy when she attempted a distinction between Assad and Libya and then embattled Muammar Gaddafi. “What’s been happening there the last few weeks is deeply concerning,” she admitted, “but there’s a difference between calling out aircraft and indiscriminately strafing and bombing your own cities.” He was referring to Gaddafi’s war against Libyans.

She said Assad’s moves were “police actions that, frankly, have exceeded the use of force that any of us would want to see.” America’s acquiescence has seen Syria launch rockets against its citizens, bomb their homes, deploy snipers who shot the armed and unarmed.

For how long will the world watch as Syrians suffer? Assad cannot be more important than millions of Syrians.