Free Republic

Secretary of State John Kerry was making a rhetorical comment when he said on Monday that Syria's President Bashar al-Assad would not hand over his country's chemical weapons. "Secretary Kerry was making a rhetorical argument about the impossibility and unlikelihood of Assad turning over chemical weapons he has denied he used," a U.S. State Department spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. "His (Kerry's) point was that this brutal dictator with a history of playing fast and loose with the facts cannot be trusted to turn over chemical weapons, otherwise he would have done so long ago. That's why the world...

He’s there in every corner of Congress where a microphone fronts a politician, there in Russia and the British Parliament and the Vatican. You may think George W. Bush is at home in his bathtub, painting pictures of his toenails, but in fact he’s the biggest presence in the debate over what to do in Syria. His legacy is paralysis, hypocrisy and uncertainty practiced in varying degrees by those who want to learn from history and those who deny it. Blame Bush? Of course, President Obama has to lead; it’s his superpower now, his armies to move, his stage. But...

Syrian government forces may have carried out a chemical weapons attack close to Damascus without the personal permission of President Bashar al-Assad, Germany's Bild am Sonntag paper reported on Sunday, citing German intelligence. Syrian brigade and division commanders had been asking the Presidential Palace to allow them to use chemical weapons for the last four-and-a-half months, according to radio messages intercepted by German spies, but permission had always been denied, the paper said.

President Obama today took time out from what the White House is billing as an intensive Syria resolution lobbying campaign to play golf. He’s playing with a few of his usual group of junior staffers - Mike Brush, Marvin Nicholson, and Joe Paulsen. But just minutes after the press pool reported Obama is on the golf course, the White House made sure to issue the pooler the following bulletin: This afternoon, the President received an update from his Chief of Staff, Denis McDonough, on the administration’s latest consultations with members of Congress. The President will make additional calls to members...

Sen. Bob Corker: “What is it you’re seeking?” Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: “I can’t answer that, what we’re seeking.” — Senate hearing on the use of force in Syria, Sept. 3. We have a problem. The president proposes attacking Syria, and his top military officer cannot tell you the objective. Does the commander in chief know his own objective? Why, yes. “A shot across the bow,” explained Barack Obama. Unless Obama can show the country that his don’t-mock-me airstrike is, in fact, part of a serious strategic plan, Congress should vote no.

President Obama has directed the Pentagon to develop an expanded list of potential targets in Syria in response to intelligence suggesting that the government of President Bashar al-Assad has been moving troops and equipment used to employ chemical weapons while Congress debates whether to authorize military action. Mr. Obama, officials said, is now determined to put more emphasis on the “degrade” part of what the administration has said is the goal of a military strike against Syria — to “deter and degrade” Mr. Assad’s ability to use chemical weapons. That means expanding beyond the 50 or so major sites that...

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told lawmakers a limited military strike to deter Syria from using chemical weapons would likely cost tens of millions of dollars, but if past experience is a guide, the number could be substantially higher than that. It is not uncommon for U.S. forces to open an assault by launching scores of Tomahawk missiles costing over $1 million apiece and dropping bombs from radar-evading B-2 planes that fly 18 hours each way from their base at a cost of $60,000 an hour. "I was surprised when I heard him (Hagel) say tens of millions of dollars. That's...

The State Department is hitting back at what it calls false accusations that Russian President Vladimir Putin made about Secretary of State John Kerry. Jen Psaki is a department spokeswoman. She says Kerry is a decorated combat veteran of the Vietnam war and has had more than words aimed at him. Psaki says Kerry is not losing sleep because of Putin's quote preposterous comment that was based on an inaccurate rendering of what Kerry said.

Much as they love Nancy Pelosi, Bay Area Democrats might not follow their leader to vote for military intervention in Syria. Minority leader Pelosi and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, threw their weight behind President Obama’s request for a war resolution. Pelosi has been increasingly ardent about her support for intervention. President Obama’s Syria resolution will sink if Pelosi can’t muster enough Democratic votes in the House.

The United States declared on Thursday that it has given up trying to work with the U.N. Security Council on Syria, accusing Russia of holding the council hostage and allowing Moscow's allies in Syria to deploy poison gas against innocent children. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power's remarks left no doubt that Washington would not seek U.N. approval for a military strike on Syria in response to an August 21 chemical attack near Damascus. She said a draft resolution Britain submitted to the five permanent council members last week calling for a response to that attack was effectively...

World leaders arrived Thursday for a dinner hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin where they would discuss the crisis in Syria, with US President Barack Obama showing up alone and well after the main group. The main group of leaders led by Putin arrived together at the historic Peterhof palace outside Saint Petersburg, with British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande seen talking animatedly at the back of the pack. But Obama was nowhere to be seen and only arrived at the palace a good half an hour after the rest.

Secretary of State John Kerry's public assertions that moderate Syrian opposition groups are growing in influence appear to be at odds with estimates by U.S. and European intelligence sources and nongovernmental experts, who say Islamic extremists remain by far the fiercest and best-organized rebel elements. Kerry asserted that the armed opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "has increasingly become more defined by its moderation, more defined by the breadth of its membership, and more defined by its adherence to some, you know, democratic process and to an all-inclusive, minority-protecting constitution. "And the opposition is getting stronger by the day," Kerry...

The Obama team has clearly struggled with its Syria policy, but, in fairness, this is a wickedly complex problem. We need a policy response that simultaneously deters another Syrian poison gas attack, doesn’t embroil America in the Syrian civil war and also doesn’t lead to the sudden collapse of the Syrian state with all its chemical weapons, or, worse, a strengthening of the Syrian regime and its allies Hezbollah and Iran. However, I think President Obama has the wrong strategy for threading that needle. He’s seeking Congressional support for a one-time “shock and awe” missile attack against Syrian military targets....

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel perked up some ears at today’s House Foreign Affairs hearing on Syria with a brief exchange in which he said Russia had supplied chemical weapons to Syria. It all happened in an exchange with Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., during which Hagel said it’s no secret that the Assad regime has significant stockpiles of chemical weapons. When Wilson asked where they’d come from, Hagel said, “Well, the Russians supply them. Others are supplying them with those chemical weapons. They make some themselves.” After the hearing had concluded, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little issued a clarification, explaining...

Washington is weighing expanding support for Syrian rebels by having the Pentagon take charge of arming the opposition instead of a clandestine effort by the CIA, officials said Wednesday. "It's under consideration," said a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "If and how (it would be done) are both questions being discussed," the official told AFP.

President Obama declared on Wednesday that the confrontation with Syria over chemical weapons was not a personal test for him but for Congress, the United States and the world as he worked to strengthen support at home and abroad for a punitive strike. “I didn’t set a red line,” Mr. Obama said during a news conference here in Stockholm. “The world set a red line.” He added, “My credibility’s not on the line. The international community’s credibility’s on the line. And America and Congress’s credibility’s on the line.” Mr. Obama laid blame for the Aug. 21 attack directly on Mr....

Barack Obama is betting his presidency on the hope of cooperation from an institution that he disdains and has proved incapable of taming. His roll-the-dice gamble for congressional go-ahead in Syria may well succeed. Still, the risk is enormous for Obama’s fraying credibility, and the implications are significant not only for the power of this president but for his successors. Obama’s decision to seek congressional approval was sudden, verging on erratic. He was certainly correct when he said Saturday that “our democracy is stronger when the president and the people’s representatives stand together.” But that raises an uncomfortable question: Why...

AFP - A Cairo court Tuesday ordered the closure of four television channels, including Al-Jazeera Egypt and Ahrar 25, a network belonging to the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.

This President has shown a unique ability to make the correct foreign policy judgments in the worst possible way. Barack Obama has had a very embarrassing time of it over Syria — and the trouble stems from a problem I’ve written about before: He continues to make pronouncements that he doesn’t really intend to carry out. His “Mubarak Must Go” was the start — and he got lucky there, since Muburak went, as a result of the Egyptians wanting him to go. He was also lucky with “Gaddafi must go”, achieving the desired result with a maximum of international support...

Syria hailed an "historic American retreat" on Sunday, mockingly accusing President Barack Obama of hesitation and confusion after he delayed a military strike to consult Congress. "Obama announced yesterday, directly or through implication, the beginning of the historic American retreat," Syria's official al-Thawra newspaper said in a front-page editorial. Syria's deputy foreign minister Faisal Mekdad accused Obama of indecision. "It is clear there was a sense of hesitation and disappointment in what was said by President Barack Obama yesterday. And it is also clear there was a sense of confusion as well," he told reporters in Damascus.