Though it’s pretty apparent at this point that there’s no way he and President Obama are going to be able to sell the Syrian War to Congress, let alone the American people, Secretary of State John Kerry insists that attacking Syria remains an option.
Kerry and Obama were both pushing the war for weeks, but seem to be shifting to a dual-track strategy, with Obama trying to sell the virtues of the US deal with Russia that involves not starting a war, and Kerry still insisting that threats to start that war anyhow are “real.”
Kerry’s comments come in the context of a visit to Israel, and with pro-Israel lobbying groups putting a lot of support behind the war, there’s likely some damage control at play here.
Kerry continues to play up the idea that Syria committed “crimes against humanity” and that the US reserves the right to act militarily against them, but the simple reality is that the war has been unsellable for weeks, and Kerry’s protestations that the threats aren’t “hollow” are no longer credible.
