Today (actually Saturday), the State Department released the full agreement between the United States and Russia for a full disarmament of Syria as Secretary Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held a joint press conference. This agreement does things beyond the wildest imaginations of a military campaign that would merely be able to degrade Assad's capabilities but not dismantle them completely. Secretary Kerry outlined the proposal in his remarks.
- Syria must submit a comprehensive list of its stockpiles within a week.
- Syria must provide to inspectors from the Organization of Prevention for Chemical Weapons complete and unfettered access to all of its facilities.
- All of Syria's chemical weapons will be destroyed, as well as production equipment and delivery capacity by the first half of 2014.
- The international community (the Organization for Prevention of Chemical Weapons) will rapidly assume control of Assad's chemical war-chest.
- Unprecedented and extraordinary procedures will be used under the Chemical Weapons Convention to ensure rapid and elimination of Syria's stockpiles.
- The agreement will be enforced by Chapter 7 in the UN Security Council, the chapter that covers, among other things, the use of military force.
So let's review, shall we? The United States gets a full disarmament of Syria - verifiably, completely, and and transparently. Russia, which until the G-20 refused to even talk about consequences for Syria is suddenly on board. Syria can't act fast enough to show and turn over the chemical weapons that until last week it didn't even admit it had. Chemical weapons? What chemic... here you go! (credit: Stephanie Miller) And to boot, the United States got Russia to agree to govern this agreement under the part of the Security Council documents that covers military action, even if Russia is still putting up a front against it.
No one should forget that the United States was forced to consider limited military strikes - unilaterally if needed - because of Russia's intransigence in protecting Syria from international consequences no matter its sins. As the president and the Secretary of State consistently said, the goal of the United States with respect to a military strike would be exclusively to degrade Assad's chemical weapons capability and deter its future use. A military strike would certainly achieve those goals, but it wouldn't completely eliminate Assad's chemical weapons. The president has, from day one, preferred a diplomatic solution - but a solution that must be able to reach the goal he was willing to use military strikes to accomplish.
He got that. He got more than that. Because of his steely resolve, he got full disarmament of Syria, Russian cooperation, international transparency and even Security Council buy-in.
It was Russia that moved from its earlier position of "no consequences for Assad" to "Okay, we'll do whatever you want, just don't bomb our boy!" John Kerry, President Obama and his team achieved complete victory, because they got everything they wanted and more.
So I guess Putin did outsmart Obama. By completely surrendering to all of President Obama's demands. Let's all hope Congressional Republicans begin 'outsmarting' the president like this right away!
Like I have been saying all along, the President is ALWAYS several moves ahead of his opposition.
The Right Wing can continue to smear Obama at every turn, he doesn't seem to care. All he cares about is results, and it looks like that is exactly what he is getting in Syria.
And all you heard yesterday from McCain and the rest was how "military strikes need to be on the table. Ameria appears weak. Obama has lost any credibility he ever had in the Middle East." Um, no, GOP. He beat you again. And he has done what the American people wanted..kept us out of another conflict, while protecting the Syrian people. So what does the GOP do today? Hold more hearings on "BENGHAZI BENGHAZI." Oh, and schedule another vote to defund the ACA. Again. Come on, Beohner, can you not ONCE do something for jobs? Once in five years?
ReplyDeleteThe same people that believe this dross about Putin outsmarting PBO are the same incurious idiots who believe the nonsense about VP Joe Biden blindsiding the President with the Gay marriage support announcement.
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DeleteAdd another Republican to Obama's list; Teddy Roosevelt.
DeleteI'd say Obama spoke softly (but firmly) and carried a big stick. Which he did not have to use.
That is the test of a true diplomat and leader. While he certainly has the military might to force what he wanted (and drag out a war for years and years thank you Georgie) instead Obama used the threat of the stick to get them to agree to what he had softly and firmly been pushing (through his mouthpiece Kerry and his off the cuff "gaff".)
Yeah, that Obama.
Stupid like a fox.
“With one pirate pointing an AK-47 at Richards' back, three Navy snipers took advantage of the pirates' momentary carelessness and shot all three dead simultaneously.”
ReplyDeleteThose were simultaneous head shots, and don’t forget what President Obama arranged for bin Laden.
Yes, the Seals did it, but I don’t recall any other president arranging such clean kills while he (the president) coolly went about giving a speech. President Obama can be very cold, and that’s an asset in his job. Putin understands it better than anyone. If he wants Assad to stay in power, they’d better not piss off Obama, because Obama will strike when it’s least expected.
I'd say cool, calm and collected.
DeleteHe has patience and self control.
These are pluses in a world leader.
Once again, Obama will show that his legacy after his two terms in office will be light years away from that of his predecessor. And in a good way.
George's legacy: 911, endless war, Katrina, Economic melt-down.
So far Obama has weathered Sandy, successfully terminated the threat of Osama bin Laden and is now taking Syria out.
And he still has three years to go.
O.T but I just read where on the sea of pee site they are trying to relabel the firefighters photo to the "spirit of Sara" and are encouraging their minions to use it as much as they like. Really, you can't teach stupid
ReplyDeleteWhat do they hope to accomplish?
DeleteThey're still violating copyright and trying to rebrand it to "the spirit of sara" (whatever the hell that means or has to do with the picture) will only provide more fodder for the opposition's lawsuit.
Yeah, stupid is as stupid does.
Trust vindicated
ReplyDelete...What President Obama has been laying out in his Syrian policy is an engagement in the world that rejects warmongering as a solution but also suggests that isolation is dangerous. He wants to promote diplomatic solutions that allow the people of Syria to decide their own fate while upholding the norms against the use of chemical weapons.
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2013/09/trust-vindicated.html?spref=tw
It's funny how history sometimes repeats itself. Over the course of six days, the Obama administration pushed Syria into the chemical weapons convention, helped create a diplomatic framework that will hopefully rid Syria of its stockpiles, successfully pushed Russia into a commitment to help disarm its own ally, quickly won support from the United Nations and our allies, and did all of this without firing a shot.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans are outraged.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/09/16/20522033-the-right-struggles-to-hide-its-disappointment-with-diplomatic-progress?lite
THIS from the PRESIDENT of IRAN!!!
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/HassanRouhani/status/379194859573104640
WE HAVE A DEAL!
ReplyDeleteWhen was the last time we teamed up with another country to make peace, instead of war?
http://jimstuartnewblog.blogspot.ca/2013/09/reflections.html
The Goalpost for Success Was the Disarmament of Syria’s WMD, So the U.S. Won an Historic Victory
ReplyDelete...So let’s stop playing this game. U.S. forces were deployed by the commander-in-chief to achieve one goal: to eliminate Assad’s chemical weapons — not to oust Assad; and not to fight on behalf of the rebels, many of whom hate us and will continue to hate us irrespective of what we might have done, or might not have done. I thought this was about getting the WMD. The administration, at least on paper, has achieved this goal without firing as so much as a water-balloon in the direction of Syria. Goldberg and other pessimists and administration opponents are free to spin away, but it doesn’t change the fact that the administration’s saber-rattling led to an eleventh-hour deal which will lead to the sole goalpost: the disarmament of Syria’s massive stockpiles of chemical weapons. The chain of events is undeniable, regardless of which other parties jumped into the fray. If it hadn’t been for the threat of military action, along with wiggle room for diplomacy, there wouldn’t be a deal on the table and we wouldn’t be having this discussion right now.
http://thedailybanter.com/2013/09/if-the-goalpost-for-success-was-the-disarmament-of-syrias-wmd-the-u-s-won-a-huge-victory/
What I believe Pres Obama has handed over to Putin is a grenade with pin pulled. PBO can be that righteously RUTHLESS. His political adversaries often realize that fact after it’s too late. If Putin is in such a hurry to be International Statesman on Syria, I can imagine Pres Obama’s eyebrow half raised when Putin stepped up: “Oh yeah? Please Proceed, Vlad”. Why?
ReplyDeleteImmediately Pres Obama takes his Securing Chemical Weapon long term goal upfront and out of the equation altogether for ALL parties, while Putin thinks he’s got the glory and long-coveted Middle East Player status. And like a wise parent does to a know-it-all adolescent insisting they be allowed to flex puffed up muscles, PBO steps out of Putin’s way.
In the long run, with Putin now claiming responsibility, Syria is gonna become Russia’s Afghanistan 2.0 on steroids. As Assad’s godfather, this responsibility will be a prolonged drain on Putin’s wallet. Short term he’ll profit by selling more conventional weapons to Assad, but that only enmeshes Putin deeper into the conflict in order to shore up Assad’s Sisyphean task, while having to expend more and more resources to fend off the never ending supply of Sunni Jihadi fighters let loose by Saudi Arabia into Syria, as well as forestall them running all over his southern lawn infecting the Caucasus any more than it already is.
***
Putin’s gonna learn fast not to tie one’s foreign policy to a mortal individual whose time is running out faster than the sand in an hourglass. There’s no one else to prop up in Syria if Assad falls, cuz all state power (and by extension Russia’s interests) resides in him and him alone, and so they have to keep him on life support no matter what. But he has no choice also because of his desire to use Gazprom to control Iranian gas imports into Europe while preventing Qatar’s gas pipeline from getting to Europe.
***
There’s a reason Assad began using Chemical Weapons. Arithmetic. He is not only defending minority Alawite power under siege, but also facing lopsidedly increasing opposition population numbers despite killing thousands and pushing millions out as refugees. No matter what he was doing with his conventional weapons, his opposition was INCREASING in numbers with al-Qaeda forces pouring in by the thousands. Assad was fighting a dam with ALL sluicegates open. He had to use chemical weapons to neuter that growing threat. But like a drug he was gonna have to increase the dosage as more ruthless fighters came across the border. Now PBO gets that option taken off the table...
http://theobamadiary.com/2013/09/14/obama-please-proceed-vlad/#more-130437
Obama Obliterates The Republican Myth That Putin Saved Him on Syria
ReplyDeleteThe president confirmed again that he discussed this with Putin a year ago. He talked to Putin about this at the G20. The notion that Putin saved Obama is political spin by his critics who are trying to tarnish his diplomatic victory in any way that they can. It is a display of how deeply Republicans hate this president that they are so willing to label Putin a hero, not even a year after their presidential nominee called Russia our biggest rival.
Republicans are out to score cheap political points, and they can’t fathom that they were again routed by a president who has spent his presidency ten steps ahead of them. This Putin saved Obama story line is fiction that created to further the Republican agenda of making the president look weak at every turn.
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/09/15/obama-obliterates-republican-myth-putin-saved-syria.html
I know it was like watching a train wreck....but I had to do it. Hasselbeck's first day on Fox & Friends with guest...Donald Trump!!! Can you imagine a better duo to discuss Syria/Obama/Putin? Do you think Obama should give his Nobel Peace Prize to Putin????? The old white fox viewers must have been drooling over that one. Trump is in love with Putin, so it must be so. I think Gryphen said it best the other day...Obama is a master chess player while the rest are picking boogers. I truly believe Obama was our only hope to get thru this perilous time without WWIII...where no one survives.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah! When this situation started getting serious, for a brief moment I was worried. Then I remembered who is in the Oval Office and I thought, Barak's got this. And I was right. Happy dance!
ReplyDeleteU.N. Report Confirms Rockets Loaded With Sarin in Aug. 21 Attack
ReplyDeleteRockets armed with the banned chemical nerve agent sarin were used in a mass killing near Damascus on Aug. 21, United Nations chemical weapons inspectors reported on Monday in the first official confirmation by scientific experts that such munitions had been deployed in the Syria conflict.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/17/world/europe/syria-united-nations.html
Here's The Full UN Report On The 'Unequivocal' Use Of Chemical Weapons In Syria
ReplyDeleteThe United Nations has released its full report detailing an "unequivocal and objective" determination that chemical weapons were used in an Aug. 21 attack that killed hundreds of people in and around the capital of Damascus.
U.N. inspectors determined that chemical weapons were used, and that 85% of blood samples tested positive for sarin gas.
Sarin is a nerve toxin whose fatality typically comes from cardiac arrest or suffocation, as overstimulated muscles around the heart and lungs eventually seize and stop working altogether. Just one drop can be fatal. The U.S. previously said that sarin gas was used in the attacks.
"This is a war crime and a grave violation of the 1925 Protocol and other rules of customary international law," U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said in a statement on Monday.
"I trust all can join me in condemning this despicable crime. The international community has a responsibility to hold the perpetrators accountable and to ensure that chemical weapons never re-emerge as an instrument of warfare."
We're still going through the report, and will add bullet points. You can check out the full report below:
http://www.businessinsider.com/un-report-syria-chemical-weapons-use-bashar-assad-2013-9
I posted the same thoughts a few days ago on a Yahoo News Board filled with rightwingers and I'm pretty sure everyone of their tin foil helmets exploded!
ReplyDeleteI think Obama had this planned out entirely.
ReplyDeleteThis is why he tossed it back to Congress for a vote.
I also don't think that "off the cuff" remark by Kerry was off the cuff at all. I think it was strategically planned between Kerry and Obama.
This was a giant chess game and Obama got the end game he had planned all along. A resolution better than anything military force could have produced and he did it much more successfully than anything Bush ever did.
Hmm. He handled Sandy better than Bush handled Katrina, too.
I would say Obama just proved that Nobel Peace Prize he was given was not misplaced.
So very true! That was strategy at it's best. He also handled Osama Bin Laden better than Bush.
DeleteThe GOP has John McCain writing an op ed in response to Putin in Pravda, explaining the second amendment and why America is exceptional, McCain just doesn't "get it", and never will.
http://rt.com/news/mccain-pravda-putin-response-864/
I think it's time for another Nobel Peace Prize for POTUS.
The big difference between Obama and Bush is that President Obama is more concerned about the results than in taking credit.
DeleteHe's willing to let Putin take some of the spotlight as long as the job gets done. The chemical weapons will be destroyed and not one American soldier had to be deployed in the process.
Bush, on the other hand, was more interested in putting on a jumpsuit and staging a big show in front of that huge Mission Accomplished banner. "Look at me, everyone!!!" Unfortunately, the mission was far from accomplished and we're STILL digging out of that mess, more than 10 years later.
Can you imagine the GOP and Fox "News" fallout if President Obama had not threatened military intervention? They'd rake him over the coals for being "weak on defense". They are RIDICULOUS and history books will not be kind to these hypocritical, bigoted freaks.
ReplyDelete...If one considers the overwhelming opposition President Obama has overcome from within and outside of his own party, his accomplishments are nothing short of miraculous. His patience and insight cannot be overstated as evidenced by his handling of a very complex situation in Syria, and despite withering criticism from the right and left, Syria is making moves to hand over their chemical arsenal without war. Regardless Republicans have obstructed and opposed each and every attempt to create jobs, there has been steady improvement in hiring and the Affordable Care Act is going to be implemented. Emoprogs complained bitterly the President did not fulfill their wish list upon entering office, but his steady hand ushered in the end of DADT and DOMA according to the constraints of the Constitution.
ReplyDeleteWhat is most admirable about this President is his grace and dignity in the face of constant obstruction based solely on racial animus without ever citing the reason for his critics’ opposition. Obviously President Obama understands the racial element inherent in the opposition to his policies, particularly those Republicans once held near and dear to their hearts until he supported them. There are many on the left who think this President is naïve to hold out hope the opposition will abandon their destructive ways and embrace bipartisanship for the sake of the country and its people, and it often appears that is the case. However, if one takes stock of his recurring victories it is apparent that it is not naïveté, but nuance; for that alone he deserves the nation’s support and gratitude.
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/09/16/republicans-hit-making-obamas-syria-success-race.html
Only his naive supporters could believe
ReplyDeleteThat Bathhouse Barry, the gay ex community organizer
can outwit Vlad Putin, the ex head of the KGB
He just did and he is not gay, though I could care less. And apparently he community organized Syria into march stepping to the USA's demands.
DeletePootin struts around like a rooster, posing shirtless while chopping wood, riding horses and acting all macho.
ReplyDeletePresident Obama keeps his shirt on, his mind focused like a laser and outwits the GOP, Syria, Russia, and Pootin. With this maneuver, he masterfully wrapped the problem like a present with a big shiny bow and dropped it in their laps.
Like playing jack in the box with toddlers.
No one bout this bull shit. Putin clearly outflanked your bum and everyone knew it then. Putin had to know Obama wasmt gonna get his little bombing mission through congress and that he was going down to an easy defeat. What an outwitting job by Putin. He stepped in and resolved the issue....not your loser!
ReplyDelete