President Obama declared last year that “There is no military solution in Syria.” Sadly, Russia’s Vladimir Putin has now proved him wrong by imposing one.
Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and the last rebel stronghold, is about to fall, thanks to withering Russian air bombardment backing government and Iranian troops. That effectively secures Bashar al-Assad’s hold on power in at least a large rump of Syria.
That left Secretary of State John Kerry with nothing to do but organize a “cessation of hostilities.”
Kerry hailed that as a significant accomplishment. But it falls far short of a lasting ceasefire: Russia intends to keep bombing, and Assad’s troops will keep fighting.
“If we negotiate, it does not mean that we stop fighting terrorism,” said the Syrian strongman. “The two tracks are inevitable in Syria.”
Even Kerry admits Putin may have only engaged in “talk for the sake of talk in order to continue the bombing.”
Obama’s “no military solution” talk was just an excuse. Putin, by contrast, saw no political solution — and set out to change the facts on the ground, as he now has. Assad — whom Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton once loudly and repeatedly insisted “had to go” — is firmly entrenched.
The key moment came when Obama walked away from his 2013 “red line” on chemical weapons as soon as Assad had crossed it. The world took note: America’s friends learned not to rely on Obama’s promises; America’s enemies learned they could call his bluff.
Meanwhile, Assad has killed 250,000 of his own people, imprisoned and tortured countless others and turned millions into refugees.
And the president who once declared that America does not “turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries” continues to do just that — to the great amusement of Vladimir Putin and Bashar Assad.