After previous comments from the State Department tried to downplay the impact, President Obama has confirmed today that if Syria continues with plans to turn over its chemical weapons to the international community for destruction he will put plans to attack Syria “on hold.”
Calling Syria’s agreement to give up its arms a “modestly positive development,” Obama also tried to paint it as vindication for his weeks of threatening to attack Syria, saying they wouldn’t have agreed to the offer if he hadn’t been planning to start a war. Congress is expected to reject his authorization for the war by a wide margin, though the White House is still hoping they will move forward with the vote, despite the war being “on hold.”
The offer was proposed by Secretary of State John Kerry earlier in the day and endorsed by Russia and Syria within a matter of hours, and also endorsed by the international community in the hours that followed.
Though this is the first we’re hearing of it, and the reactions from Russian Foreign Ministry and Syrian officials suggested it was the first time they’d seen it, President Obama claimed that he had been pushing Russian President Vladimir Putin on the plan to disarm Syria for over a year, saying they had discussed the matter at least year’s G20 as well as the one last week. Putin has yet to confirm this.
From a facebook friend of mine and fellow socialist:
"Is there any possible way for the Syrian government to hand over "all" its chemical weapons over? How can it prove that it then has *no* chemical weapons? This is the repeat of the strategy of asking for non-existent weapons of mass destruction. But there is a significant element to it, namely the United States government and its moderate European and Mid Eastern allies are worried about a large amount of chemical weapons falling into the hands of the extremist rebels on the U.S government payroll.
So, Russia and the US governments are trying to strong arm Assad into handing over any chemical weapons the country has. After which the strike will continue, with less risk.
But why would Assad agree to this deal? It is clear that regardless of public opposition or the vote in Congress or the norms of International Law, the gangsters running the United States of America will strike Syria.
Without the revolutionary mobilization of the American working class, this War cannot be avoided."
Geesh, what a psychotic narcissist! It was his idea all along, yeah right!
So now he bombs the people who dropped white phosphorous on Palestine…
Hey, when's the last time 'we' thought of IRS, NSA, …? How many 'gates' did this displace?
So now there'll be (probably competitive) scrambling to develop the next myth. It will probably include e.g. the false inference that the offer indicated Assad's guilt or lack of control. Lying and spin has been routine in all of this.