Even as President Obama attempts to make the case for urgent military action, suggesting that the Syrian regime can be deterred from chemical weapons use by such action, Secretary of State John Kerry threatened “unbelievably small” consequences for Bashar al-Assad’s failure to turn over his chemical weapons.
Kerry spoke in the UK, where he said, “We will be able to hold Bashar al-Assad accountable without engaging in troops on the ground or any other prolonged kind of effort in a very limited, very targeted, short-term effort that degrades his capacity to deliver chemical weapons without assuming responsibility for Syria’s civil war. That is exactly what we are talking about doing – unbelievably small, limited kind of effort.”
Kerry said that the United States knew where Syrian’s chemical weapons were, and that US intelligence “was controlled in a very tight manner by the Assad regime…Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher al-Assad, and a general are the three people that have the control over the movement and use of chemical weapons.” He added, “under any circumstances, the Assad regime is the Assad regime, and the regime issues orders…we have no issue here about responsibility. They have a very threatening level of stocks remaining.”
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.