When we control Syria, we won’t forget that you forgot about us.” That is how the sister of a dead Free Syrian Army soldier responded when a US journalist told her family that Americans were afraid of getting mired in another Iraq or Afghanistan. She and millions of her fellow Syrians cannot understand why with all the US talk of freedom and democracy, and its air cover for Libyan rebels, it will not send the arms necessary to help the opposition defend itself against Bashir al-Assad’s regime.

Sooner or later some combination of the opposition groups will indeed control Syria. And when they do, their memories of who did what during the struggle to achieve a democratic Syria are going to matter far more to the US and Europe than policy makers presently calculate.

One of President Barack Obama’s goals coming into office was to forge a “new beginning” between the US and the Muslim world. Revolutions such as the one in Syria would seem to afford the perfect opportunity. But he and his fellow Nato leaders are far more focused on the short-term risks than the long-term gains.