The issue: International community faced with a decision on how to respond

Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad celebrated the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan by sending tanks into the rebellious cities of Hama and Deir el-Zour and killing more than 100 fellow countrymen.

RAMADAN COULD be the make-or-break month for the four-month-long uprising. Because of the dawn-to-dusk fast and evening services at mosques, the streets of Syria’s cities will be full of people, and crowds have a way of coalescing into anti-regime demonstrations.

Assad’s earlier strategy — his family has been at this for 40 years — of offering liberalization and political reforms failed. He never followed through on similar promises to quell earlier demonstrations, and the Syrian people figured, no doubt rightly, that he wouldn’t follow through on these, either.

With his heavily armed incursions into restive cities, Assad seems to have settled on a strategy of killing protesters until they stop protesting. Assad is ruthless enough to do it, too. So far, his security forces have killed more than 1,600 people. President Barack Obama pretty much had it right when he identified the cornerstones of the regime as “torture, corruption and terror.”

UNLIKE THE LIBYAN uprising, where NATO is playing a useful role in support of the insurgents, there is no enthusiasm for international intervention in Syria. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said flatly, “There is no indication whatsoever that the Americans, that we would get directly involved with respect to this.”

International response has been largely uncoordinated. There have been any number of stern denunciations of the regime and the violence, but only token travel sanctions imposed on leading members of the regime. There is a fear that sanctions would only hurt the Syrian people, not the regime.

Italy has recalled its ambassador, but other European Union nations have not, arguing that their envoys are among their only sources of information about what’s going on in the country. Syria has banned most foreigners and all foreign journalists.

There is, however, some indication that the international community is trying to get its act together. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has met with U.S.-based Syrian activists and President Obama is said to be taking a second look at sanctions.

RUSSIA, WHICH has been opposed to a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria, now says it is open to a resolution, but one without sanctions. Meanwhile, the EU may go ahead and apply them on its own.

Some diplomats argue that ousting the Assad family — Bashar’s father, Hafez, ruled with equal brutality before him — runs the risk of a sectarian civil war that may spread to neighboring countries. Considering the increasingly violent measures Assad is taking to crush dissent, that seems a risk worth taking.

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