Amid the chaos in Washington these days, the most urgent crisis of late summer has been completely forgotten. The continuing civil war in Syria (over 100,000 dead) and the crossing of Barack Obama’s “red line” on the use of chemical weapons were at the news cycle forefront not long ago, but as Fox News’ Bret Baier observed, “Now, crickets are chirping when it comes to talking about Syria, other than to praise its government for doing all it can with chemical weapons sites.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin took the lead in working out a “deal” for Syria to relinquish its chemical weapons, and the international committee tasked with managing it just won the Nobel Peace Prize – before they’ve done anything. Sunday, the Arab League announced that an international conference seeking to end Syria’s civil war is scheduled for late November in Geneva. According to The Wall Street Journal, “The proposed conference on Nov. 23 and 24 will attempt to get Syria’s rival sides to agree on a transitional government in that country based on a plan adopted in Geneva in June 2012.” Good luck getting opposition forces to agree on anything involving Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The reverse is also true. Assad’s regime says it refuses to negotiate with “terrorists.”

Regardless of the outcome, the Obama administration has been remarkably silent of late and evidently has no intention of leading – from the front, back or otherwise.