{"id":3512,"date":"2013-09-16T00:26:46","date_gmt":"2013-09-16T00:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/?p=3512"},"modified":"2013-09-16T00:26:46","modified_gmt":"2013-09-16T00:26:46","slug":"obama-is-winning-the-syria-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=3512","title":{"rendered":"Obama is winning the Syria debate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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With all due respect to the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, President Obama is emerging as a victor in the struggle to rid Syria of the chemical weapons it now says it possesses.<\/p>\n

Mike McCaul, R-Texas, said on Fox News Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is the big winner here and that President Obama has been reduced to a bit player in this ongoing drama.<\/p>\n

Well, that’s about what we’ve come to expect from a leading House Republican.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/thehill.com\/blogs\/global-affairs\/middle-east-north-africa\/322295-rep-mccaul-obama-no-victor-in-syria-deal<\/p>\n

Living as I do in the heart of Anti-Obama Country, I am acutely aware of the negative views of the president’s handling of the Syria crisis. I am not happy with the way he’s handled some developments in this crisis. I wished initially he hadn’t backed off his threat to strike Syria in retaliation for that government’s gassing of civilians.<\/p>\n

But consider what’s happened.<\/p>\n

* Barack Obama issued the threat to hit Syrian military targets to dissuade Syria from using chemical weapons in the future.<\/p>\n

* Russia, one of Syria’s main allies, steps in with a plan to get Syria to turn its chemical weapons over to international inspectors.<\/p>\n

* The Syrians, who at first denied having the weapons, agreed.<\/p>\n

* Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart agree to the deal and have given Syria a timetable to comply.<\/p>\n

I agree the deal is fraught with danger. Syria might not comply, forcing the United States to follow through with its strike threat.<\/p>\n

What was the catalyst for all this? The president’s initial threat to hit Syria.<\/p>\n

Does that make Barack Obama look stronger or weaker? I believe it strengthens the president. Of course, those in the opposing party say he is weakened by all this. I would suggest that a strategy that results in Syria giving up its chemical weapons without having to bomb them into doing it takes us closer to an end to a serious crisis.<\/p>\n

That view, of course, will be a non-starter for those who think the worst of the 44th president of the United States.<\/p>\n\n

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With all due respect to the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, President Obama is emerging as a victor in the struggle to rid Syria of the chemical weapons it now says it possesses. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, said on Fox News Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is the big winner here and … Continue reading Obama is winning the Syria debate<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[540,942,2312,2369,4489,5125],"class_list":["post-3512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-barack-obama","tag-chemical-weapons","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-syria","tag-vladimir-putin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3512\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}