Fareed Zakaria: Obama on the path to success in Syria [View all]
Whatever the twisted path, whether by design or accident, the Obama administration has ended up in a better place on Syria than looked possible even days ago. The president was wise to take up and begin to test the Russian offer to remove and possibly destroy Syrias arsenal of chemical weapons. In fact, the offer has forced some clarity from a sometimes muddled U.S. foreign policy. For the president to turn this situation into a foreign policy success, he will have to maintain that clarity.
. Obamas aim is solely to affirm an international norm. To this end, he already has achieved something important. He has mobilized world attention, and there is now a chance, albeit small, that he might get a process in place that monitors and even destroys Syrian chemical weapons. Almost certainly he has ensured that such weapons wont be used again by the Assad regime. Thats more than he could have achieved through airstrikes which are unlikely to have destroyed such weapons. (Bombing chemical weapons facilities could easily release toxins into the atmosphere.) This is a significant success.
. The Obama administration is right to carefully and thoroughly pursue the diplomatic path even though it will be difficult. While Syria and Russia are doing so as a way to avert an attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin might also be happy to see Assads weapons locked up or destroyed. In fact, this gambit might be a way for Russia to achieve its real goals in Syria: no regime change and no chemical weapons
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fareed-zakaria-obama-is-on-the-path-to-success-in-syria/2013/09/11/5757f55a-1b06-11e3-a628-7e6dde8f889d_story.html?tid=pm_opinions_pop
Found here.
http://theobamadiary.com/
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