How far it actually facilitated – as opposed to merely accelerating – the opposition victory will be debated by political analysts and historians in the months and years to come.
His ideological positions then did nothing to accelerate escape from opposition.
"We have to work even harder with our allies and the opposition to accelerate Assad's exit while there is still a Syria to save," William J. Burns, the deputy secretary of state, said at a symposium at Princeton University on Saturday, as accounts of the Israeli strikes were beginning to emerge.
The highest-ranking defector so far, Riyad Farid Hijab, the former prime minister, visited Qatar on Friday for what his spokesman said were discussions on "unifying the efforts of the opposition to accelerate the pace of the downfall of the regime," Reuters reported.
The decision, which Secretary of State John Kerry announced at a meeting in Rome of Western and Arab "Friends of Syria," highlights the problem for Washington and its European partners, namely how to support the opposition and accelerate the ouster of a brutal dictator without getting pulled into another war in the Mideast.
Deep into the curve, as the formidable opposition accelerated, Felix, the most graceful of sprinters, suddenly began to look awkward on her feet.
President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., in separate interviews this weekend, said that the accelerating crackdown on opposition leaders in Iran in recent days would not deter them from seeking to engage the country's top leadership in direct negotiations.
And military action could backfire in various ways, including by undermining Iran's political opposition, accelerating the bomb program or provoking retaliation against American forces and allies in the region.
More likely, those voters who had held a sort of despairing hope in the party's ability to remake itself will now switch allegiance to the opposition, accelerating the LDP's demise.
And that's even without suspecting that Erdogan manipulated the coup into being in order to greatly accelerate a crackdown on internal opposition.
