WASHINGTON – President Obama admitted Sunday that he didn’t win any “style points” for his zig-zag policy moves on Syria, but he insisted the outcome so far “sounds to me like we did something right.”
“We’re definitely in a better position,” Obama said on ABC’s “This Week,” touting the fledgling deal brokered with Russia for Syria to give up chemical weapons.
Syria has yet to agree to the deal that would require President Bashar al-Assad’s regime to identify all of is chemical weapons stockpiles by the end of this week and begin handing it over.
Obama had vacillated about how to intervene since an alleged sarin gas attack Aug. 21 killed more than 1,000 civilians – including about 400 children — near Damascus.
“Folks here in Washington like to grade on style,” said the commander in chief, painting his performance as a resounding success compared to President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq.
“So had we rolled out something that was very smooth and disciplined and linear, they would have graded it well, even if it was a disastrous policy,” he said. “We know that, ’cause that’s exactly how they graded the Iraq War until it ended up … blowing in our face.”
Obama was poised to launch missile strikes but abruptly put it on hold to seek authorization from Congress. Then, with lawmakers on the verge of rejecting military action, Obama turned to a last-minute Russian offer for a diplomatic solution.
But the president boasted that his willingness to shift positions and create foreign policy on the fly demonstrates that he is “less concerned about style points” and “more concerned about getting the policy right.”
“What I’ve said consistently throughout is that the chemical weapons issue is a problem. I want that problem dealt with. And as a consequence of the steps that we’ve taken over the last two weeks to three weeks, we now have a situation in which Syria has acknowledged it has chemical weapons, has said it’s willing to join the convention on chemical weapons, and Russia, its primary sponsor, has said that it will pressure Syria to reach that agreement.
“That’s my goal. And if that goal is achieved, then it sounds to me like we did something right.”
Obama said that he doesn’t completely trust Russian President Vladimir Putin, but the two can work together when they have common interests, such as avoiding the “chaos” in Syria.
“I know that sometimes this gets framed or looked at through the lens of the U.S. versus Russia. But that’s not what this is about,” said Obama, who has often come up on the losing end after run-ins with the Putin, including Russia granting asylum to U.S. spy secrets leaker Edward Snowden.
“What this is about is, ‘how do we make sure that we don’t have the worst weapons in the hands, either of a murderous regime or … some elements of the opposition that are as opposed to the United States,” said Obama.
“You know, Ronald Reagan said, ‘Trust but verify.’ And I think that that’s always been the experience of U.S. presidents when we’re interacting with first, Soviet leaders, and now Russian leaders,” he said.
“Mr. Putin and I have strong disagreements on a whole range of issues,” Obama continued. “But I can talk to him. We have worked together on important issues.”
Obama credited Putin with helping the U.S. on another battlefront: Afghanistan.
“The fact of the matter is that we couldn’t be supplying all of our troops in Afghanistan if he weren’t helping us in transporting those supplies through the northern borders of Afghanistan,” said Obama.