Meanwhile, in an area of Syria seized by Al Qaeda, a video camera documented how foreign fighters from Chechnya, France, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia were terrorizing the young people of the Syrian revolution, tearing down their flag. Then Al Qaeda posted signs on the roads under its control: “Democracy Is Blasphemy.”

The Syrian tragedy came to dominate screens worldwide. And the question for Arab nations was clear: Do you understand the fate of those who demand freedom and democracy? This question, which was answered with Syrian blood, confirmed that this dreadful Arab Spring must end in Damascus.

America and the West confined their intervention mainly to words, as if statements alone would counter the Assad regime’s brutality and the hatefulness of the imported terrorists. In our time, terrorism has emerged as an effective prescription for treating all diseases — a postmodern sorcery that has opened Syria’s doors to thousands of jihadis from around the world.

Once in Syria, these bearded men drove tanks and fired machine guns, applying what they had learned from playing video games. Fantasy blended with fact so that the two were hard to separate.

As terrorists streamed in and Syria erupted, the free world kept a safe distance. In 2014, President Barack Obama, defending the West’s lack of significant military intervention, questioned whether the “moderate opposition” in Syria — which included “farmers or dentists or maybe some radio reporters” — could ever prevail against “a battle-hardened regime, with support from external actors who have a lot at stake.”

But if a Syrian dentist says to the world, in effect, “You have bad breath,” what’s wrong with that?