According to this, all chemical weapon facilities in Syria have been destroyed and verified by international watchdogs. To me, this seems like the best possible resolution of the chemical weapons crisis in Syria- even if it was handled clumsily at first.
I’d disagree that it was even handled clumsily. It was handled great, from giving Russia face and allowing an out for Syria that didn’t involve a military attack. Every step of this was carefully coordinated and the result is better than could have been expected. Only those Republicans who wanted to start another war were upset about how it was handled, and started spreading misinformation to defeat it immediately. Luckily for us and the world, they utterly and completely failed 
Of, course, the civil war is still happening and still deadlocked and rebel factions are still fighting each other. But, at least as to the chemical weapons, this is an unqualified success.
No. We didn’t shoot anyone or make another $100B for Halliburton. Total disaster.
That was always going to be the case, regardless of what we did, so I don’t see the relevance. As to the OP, absolutely this was an unqualified success for the Administration and Obama. I thought it was the best of the bad alternatives available at the time, and it’s worked out even better than I thought it would when this was all originally unfolding.
-Loup Garou
When ignorance rears it’s ugly head, bit it’s leg off!
The Fat Lady hasn’t sung yet, but the lack of controversy is a sign of succes.
It is certainly a successful resolution, for now, to the chemical weapons issue in Syria. That is huge.
I’m not sure I would credit the US administration any more than any of the rest of the United Nations though. I would credit Russia a bit more than the US on this one. And though I don’t think highly of Assad, Syrian cooperation and acceptance of international intervention in this matter made it all possible.
This really demonstrates that elections are important. Bush started a war to rid Iraq of nonexistent WMDs, a war which cost tens of thousands of lives (mostly Iraqi) and trillions of dollars.
Obama rid Syria of real WMDs for practically no cost in lives or treasure.
I hope people remember.
They won’t.
The media was rooting for the rebels. Once it became clear that they were going to lose, the media lost interest. Or maybe it’s because they finally realized that if the rebels win, then al-Qaida will gain a new stronghold. (We’ve known all along that the rebels are backed by them. It’s not any kind of secret.) Either way, the media just doesn’t care about Syria any more.
It’s sad that a stalemate/continuing war is in our best interests, but I think the situation was handled quite well.
Not to rain on the parade but while this is a hopeful sign of success, it’s not a done deal yet.
Syria has completed the first phase, which is closing down its production facilities. But the second phase - which is eliminating its existing stockpile of chemical weapons - hasn’t started yet. So at the moment, Syria still has chemical weapons and the ability to use them is it wishes.
So progress is being made but this isn’t a victory yet.
Promising, but I won’t be very happy until Assad is a bullet-ridden corpse or a prisoner awaiting transportation to the Hague.
Well, yes and no. The Islamist factions of the rebellion have been fighting the others.
The question is how much are you willing to spend to get that?
We could go haphazardly into Syria with dreams of being greeted as liberators, spend a trillion dollars and 10 years, kill Assad and turn Syria into what Iraq is today. Is that worth it?
Syria really is no danger to us. Their situation sucks, but so do a lot of countries in that region. We’ve done about as well as we can there without putting up the lives of thousands of our troops and hundreds of thousands of their civilians. Sometimes its best to just admit that the cost of doing more isn’t worth it.
Remember what? What’s going on? Where am I?
–American voter
Of course, chemical weapons are fairly easy to make and Syria could easily reconstitute it when it chooses.
The biggest and long lasting outcome is the return of Russia as a great power. This is the first time that the Russians have outmanoeuvred and checked the US since the early 1980’s.
So, sorry no victory. Just a face saving concession.
I don’t get this at all. They “outmaneuvered” us into… not getting involved in an unnecessary war, and getting the chemical weapons issue addressed peacefully?
Big win for Obama here. First Libya and now this. Alternatively if McCain had won the US would be fighting against 10 different middle eastern countries by now.
We got outmaneuvered into getting absolutely everything we wanted, those rascals.
. . . letting Russia be the voice of reason for once. It’s embarrassing.