President Obama has decided to send an ambassador to Syria after a four-year hiatus. Bush had withdrawn the ambassador (but kept the embassy open and functioning normally under a charge d’affaires) in the wake of the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005.

The New York Times says simply that Washington suspects Syria’s involvement. Actually, it goes beyond that: Hardly a country in the world doesn’t suspect Syrian involvement. This is why there is a U.N.-sponsored tribunal investigating Syrian complicity. Syria has since refused to cooperate, however, and so the lesson Obama now chooses to send is that there are no red lines or absolutes, and rogue regimes can always outlast international outrage. All it takes is four years of defiance and then everything will be okay. No wonder Tehran and Pyongyang, let alone adversaries like Moscow and Beijing simply don’t take Washington seriously.