The US and Russia reached an agreement on a plan for Syria to turn over its chemical weapons.
BREAKING: US, Russia reach agreement on framework of 'principles' for securing Syrian chemical weapons
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 14, 2013
From the State Department’s Framework for Elimination of Syrian Chemical Weapons:
Taking into account the decision of the Syrian Arab Republic to accede to the Chemical Weapons Convention and the commitment of the Syrian authorities to provisionally apply the Convention prior to its entry into force, the United States and the Russian Federation express their joint determination to ensure the destruction of the Syrian chemical weapons program (CW) in the soonest and safest manner.
For this purpose, the United States and the Russian Federation have committed to prepare and submit in the next few days to the Executive Council of the OPCW a draft decision setting down special procedures for expeditious destruction of the Syrian chemical weapons program and stringent verification thereof. The principles on which this decision should be based, in the view of both sides, are set forth in Annex A. The United States and the Russian Federation believe that these extraordinary procedures are necessitated by the prior use of these weapons in Syria and the volatility of the Syrian civil war.
The United States and the Russian Federation commit to work together towards prompt adoption of a UN Security Council resolution that reinforces the decision of the OPCW Executive Council. This resolution will also contain steps to ensure its verification and effective implementation and will request that the UN Secretary-General, in consultation with the OPCW, submit recommendations to the UN Security Council on an expedited basis regarding the UN’s role in eliminating the Syrian chemical weapons program.
First the Obama administration’s stance was that Assad must go. Then came the “red line” moment and the threats to strike Syria to hold Assad accountable for chemical weapons use. We’ve gone from that sort of rhetoric, to being lectured by Vladimir Putin and just telling Assad to hand over the chemical weapons.
After all the variations of tough talk, the messaging has been a bit…confusing.
https://twitter.com/LouiseMensch/status/378878703088197632
Before, political solution in #Syria was removal of Assad. Today it is handing over the chemical weapons. Who won?
— Rami SD (@SyrianShabab) September 14, 2013
Syria has one week to account for all of its chemical weapons, and until November for on-site inspections of those declared sites . In the first half of 2014, the expectation is complete elimination of all chemical weapons material and equipment. If Assad violates the agreement, it’s back to the UN.
As CNN points out in Obstacles, headaches in agreement over Syria, “The U.N. inspectors in Iraq spent seven years trying to uncover and destroy its weapons of mass destruction program.” And in the midst of a civil war in Syria, there are any number of obstacles Assad can present to stall the destruction of chemical weapons.
While I think many are relieved not to be launching a military strike on Syria, there doesn’t seem to be have been any other major retribution for Assad’s use of those chemical weapons in the first place.
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Comments
“Assad only needs to decommission his CW in next 9 months? Really? Obama is the new Jimmy Carter. Total surrender. #tcot”
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In reality Louise, it’s even worse than that. Assad only needs to pretend to decommission his CW in the next 9 months.
This entire “deal” is a farce and everybody knows it, but the Obama sycophants in the MSM will do their own pretending, and crow about how Obama saved the day. Whatever it takes to avoid admitting that their anointed one is a feckless fool who just bent over for “sloucher in the back of the class” Vlad Putin. (Bet all that new “flexibility” you gained after the election helped with that, eh Barry?).
Wrong question. Right question: has Obama really been saved?
Punished for what? It has not been proven that Assad used chemical weapons. There is circumstantial evidence to implicate each party. The type of chemicals used has also not been confirmed. There has only been an observation of symptoms.
As for the civil war, there is evidence that it was instigated by foreign interests, including sovereigns. Not the least of which was America’s role in arming the “rebels” and permitting the dissemination of arms of various classes from Gaddafi’s arsenal.
“BREAKING: US, Russia reach agreement on framework of ‘principles’ for securing Syrian chemical weapons”
Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “The Devil’s in the Details” doesn’t it?
Disgraceful!
Sounds like a rocket docket, to me.
Assad is not going to step down, if he knows that doing so is going to result in genocide against his people. Unlike Barack Obama, we can assume he gives a rat’s @ss about those kids in those horrible gas videos — those children kidnapped a short while ago and now identified by their families. We can speculate that he may be smart enough to recognize that those weapons have become a liability, especially in light of the accusations from the US that his own government was responsible for killing those Alawite children (he’s Alawite).
The underlying story may be that Al-Qaeda has overstepped again, and by engaging in their trademark savagery, made themselves unwelcome among yet another set of purported allies. If so, the Assad regime and the rebels who are legitimately in-country have a common enemy, and therefore a framework for discussion.
As they say, one photograph is worth a thousand..Obama foreign policies…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sgtkey0811/9739223858/sizes/l/
lol x 100.
Jay’s Still the Greatest: Jay Leno: ‘I’m on That New Obama Diet. Every Day I Let Vladimir Putin Eat My Lunch’
OBAMA AND PUTIN REACH AGREEMENT: LIFE IS CHEAP. DAMN CHEAP.
Of course it is. Obama described human life as a burden.
A human life evolves from conception to death. This is neither a novel nor controversial observation. It is an objective truth.
Around one million human lives are prematurely terminated every year in America, and several hundred million more around the world, every year. Without acknowledgment that a human life has intrinsic value, it has predictably become a commodity. It is treated as a commodity to rationalize slavery. It is treated as a commodity to rationalize denigration of individual dignity. It is treated as a commodity to rationalize elective abortion.
People need to make better choices and accept responsibility for their actions. They need to curb their egos.
Punished? Really? Is this our job now, we “punish our enemies”? For something we have nothing more than Obama’s word happened (at the hands of Assad)? This is the same Obama who dreamed up Fast and Furious to put guns in the hands of dangerous drug cartels and other criminals for the sole purpose of trumpeting gun “control.” He cannot be trusted; he’s a liar, and he’s a disgusting, heartless human being. Do you honestly think he cares about anyone who is the victim of chemical weapons? Does he care when he’s the one ordering the attacks, be they by drones or otherwise?
Did you hear that hodge-podge nightmare Obama spewed the other night? He has no clue what to say or do because who he is and what he believes is simply not in line with Americans or with America’s interest. We can’t keep pretending that it is. I’m still not convinced that it wasn’t the “rebels” (aka al Qaeda) who used the chemical weapons and are still using them. And I’m not at all convinced that Obama and his traitorous horde didn’t lie about chemical weapon use (at least who did it, even where they got them from).
It’s really time, I think, to stop pretending to ourselves that the entire world hasn’t been successfully “fundamentally transformed” at the hands of our current Dictator in Chief, and to wake up to the fact–based on the results of his actions and inactions–that Obama’s last thought is about how to secure or champion America.
Obama’s fundamental problem is becoming clearer by the day. Serial stupid. A total inability to learn from his own (let alone someone else’s) mistakes.
How did he step into it this time? By putting down a bogus red line. And how is he trying to get out of it? By putting down another red line. “Syria has a week …”. Great. And when Assad (who ain’t no genius, but he blows Obama into the weeds) ignores that one, then what? Nothing, that’s what. Another bogus red line. Assad will be totally unaffected. Whoever used the gas will be totally unaffected. Obama will look even more impotent and ineffectual. And America will look even more stupid for putting such an obvious twit in the Oval Office.
Drudge’s top headline says “boots may be on the ground” in Syria deal. Kerry is out of his mind!
The interesting thing, ahead, is “who gets picked by the democrats” in 2016. Kerry was vying for the top spot. He has to knock Hillary down. Kerry has never stopped dreaming of being president.
What happens if boots go on the ground? Obama doesn’t have the support!
It’s as if our government has decided to fly by its own seat of the pants! And, American will has nothing to do with it.
LBJ was the jerk who tried this, before. In Vietnam. And, back then there was a draft! Kids learned that if they kept their uniforms on, when they returned to the States, ordinary travelers would SPIT ON THEM!
Back then, too, we got Dr. Strangelove. Based on either Westmoreland. Or Curtis LeMay. How come our military can’t promote decent people? How come the military (all units) gets led by trash? Do they even listen to Obama?
Does Kerry understand that what he’s doing will have a price tag attached?
Don’t ask me what Obama’s price tag is. When he got elected, and re-elected, lots of people thought his incompetence would keep him out of trouble. Or? He’d expose the damaged machinery. It’s a feature. Not a bug.
It may take a century to clean up the mess of “bombs away.” Is there a muslim country we haven’t bombed? (Outside of the saud’s, the sunni’s, and their cousins, the kuwaiti’s.)
I guess if anyone ahead tries to publish a book about this they’ll go straight to jail. Courtesy of Dianne Feinstink. And, the “new rules” to “protect” journalists.
Their usage of language is purely Orwellian.
Okay, so how about this for a thought? No, Assad hasn’t been punished in any way, shape, or form. And he won’t be until he takes his place in the dock at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
Has it not struck anyone else how the whole Putin/Obama drama of the past couple of weeks smacks of the ol’ “good cop/bad cop” act we’ve all seen on t.v. and in the movies?
I mean, c’mon… Really… Bad cop Obama with his western ally posse comes in and threatens hellfire and damnation (might have been more credible if the Brits had cooperated, but, then, again, one could spin that as a way to play that O’ was really bad, and, hey, tell the truth, being threatened by the crazy-ass French has to give one pause, eh? The Foreign Legion could well put quite a dent in one’s day.). Good cop Putin, longtime ally and buddy, comes in and threatens bad cop Obama, to re-establish (if necessary) his bona fides and just how much a bff he is to Assad. Back and forth and upside down and inside out. Get Assad so dizzy he could ralph – to the point he’ll agree to almost anything if they’ll just let him get back to the business of killing rebels.
They all reach agreement. All Assad has to do, for the time being, is refrain from using chemical weapons against anybody and let the international community come in and dismantle what he has and destroy what he has. In return, he gets to fight Al Qaeda (which for Putin and Obama, both, is far preferable to having to do that themselves) and hopefully come closer to wiping that form of evil from the face of the Earth.
Assuming that Putin and Obama really mean anything when they express horror at the thought of CW having been used in Syria, what they get out of the deal is the evidence they need to put the cuffs on Assad and, eventually haul him into court. Time off for cooperating in Al Qaeda killing and weapon disposal.
And we march ever forward toward the nascent New World Order. 🙂