Remember all this bragging from John Kerry and others in the Obama administration about Syria just a few years ago?
.@JohnKerry: Today the last 8% of declared chemical weapons were removed from #Syria. Great work done by all involved http://t.co/ccPDVkNISz
— Department of State (@StateDept) June 24, 2014
Important achievement: removal of last 8 percent of declared chem weapons precursors from Syria
— Susan Rice -Archived (@AmbRice44) June 24, 2014
The progress that's been made towards eliminating #Syria's ability to use chemical weapons is remarkable: http://t.co/8s7VqWqqcZ
— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) October 31, 2013
Naturally, the key word there was “declared,” because obviously that didn’t really happen:
Dozens reported killed in suspected Syria chemical attack. https://t.co/k8SvuvyTX6
— NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (@NBCNightlyNews) April 8, 2018
And that’s the dangerous rub with all of the Obama-era foreign policy brags — they’re based on declarations from those who are being monitored and “deals” with despots allowed to self-inspect. In other words, Obama flacks guarantees about Syria are about as reliable as their guarantee that the Iran deal blocked the regime’s path to nukes.
Just for the record, “they” are backing off on that “chemical weapon attack” claim. I don’t think the UN really had considered the ramifications when they jumped on the bandwagon.