General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" [View all]karynnj
(59,503 posts)To this day, the media and right argue that Obama backed down after saying he would attack if Syria crossed the red line of using chemical weapons. Somehow they entirely miss the point that Obama and Kerry repeatedly spoke of a targeted attack that would raise the cost for Syria of using CW in the future - hopefully to the point that they would not be used again. Instead, Syria gave up all the CW and the US destroyed them -- and thus there was no attack.
To me, this meant:
1) K and O were honest in saying the goal was to deter use of CW - NOTHING would insure that more than Syria giving them up.
2) The right and much of the media chose to believe that Obama was really going for regime change - even though he and Kerry denied it. Thus, in their minds, Obama backed down.
Here on DU, I see many that rather give Obama credit, give credit to Putin. Note that before there was a threat of US force, there was no hint of Russia agreeing to pressure Syria on this -- although both Obama and Kerry had brought it up.
The net result of that entire action was that tons of dangerous chemical weapons are not in Syria -- for ISIL to get -- and two people who deserve credit are Obama and Kerry.