For the Record, Obama Has Done Pretty Well on Syria

But you wouldn't know that from all his critics: David Ignatius
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 19, 2013 1:21 PM CDT
For the Record, Obama Has Done Pretty Well on Syria
President Obama speaks at the White House in this file photo.   (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The many, many critics of President Obama's Syria strategy say it has amounted to nothing short of a national embarrassment. Which David Ignatius of the Washington Post find a little "puzzling" given how things have worked out. The threat of force got Russia invested in a resolution, got Syria to agree to destroy its chemical weapons, got the UN talking tough (genuinely so, for once) about the international ban on chemical weapons, and gave new impetus to US- and Russia-brokered cease-fire talks that might result in Bashar al-Assad leaving power of his own accord in the next year.

And all this without military action, which the public clearly opposes. Not bad, and yet Obama is taking a beating. Contrast him with John McCain, who swoops into every international crisis these days with a plan and "commands respect" even when said plan has little public support. "Not so Obama," writes Ignatius. "He can propose what the country wants, succeed at it and still get hammered as a failure." Click for his full column. (More President Obama stories.)

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