What next for syria—breakthrough, breakdown or botched opportunity?
The Obama administration is on the verge of botching an unprecedented opportunity. Prior to the remarkable joint U.S.-Russian initiative that established a process to dispose of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, the outlook for the region was grim. The only certainty was continuing violence that will kill tens of thousands and displace many more hundreds of thousands of Syrians. President Barak Obama had double checkmated himself by declaring that Syrian President Bashar al Assad must stand down from office and then setting a “redline” around using chemical weapons. Following the chemical attacks that killed some 1400 people on August 21st, Obama made two highly contradictory decisions. First, the president vowed to [...]
