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The New York Times has obtained a recording of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry voicing his frustration over the Syrian civil war:
Secretary of State John Kerry was clearly exasperated, not least at his own government. Over and over again, he complained to a small group of Syrian civilians that his diplomacy had not been backed by a serious threat of military force, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by The New York Times.
"I think you're looking at three people, four people in the administration who have all argued for use of force, and I lost the argument."
The 40-minute discussion, on the sidelines of last week's United Nations General Assembly in New York, provides a glimpse of Mr. Kerry's frustration with his inability to end the Syrian crisis. He veered between voicing sympathy for the Syrians' frustration with United States policy and trying to justify it. The conversation took place days after a brief cease-fire he had spearheaded crumbled, and as his Russian counterpart rejected outright his new proposal to stop the bombing of Aleppo. Those setbacks were followed by days of crippling Russian and Syrian airstrikes in Aleppo that the World Health Organization said Wednesday had killed 338 people, including 100 children.
At the meeting last week, Mr. Kerry was trying to explain that the United States has no legal justification for attacking Mr. Assad's government, whereas Russia was invited in by the government.
"The problem is the Russians don't care about international law, and we do." [...] "We're trying to pursue the diplomacy, and I understand it's frustrating. You have nobody more frustrated than we are."
Also at Reuters.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday October 02 2016, @04:57AM
So it sounds like John Kerry is bitching about his inability to get us into yet another war
TFS is at least HALF giving that impression:
he complained that his diplomacy had not been backed by a serious threat of military force
...
Mr. Kerry was trying to explain that the United States has no legal justification for attacking Mr. Assad's government
To be fair those were the journalist's characterizations, not exactly Kerry's words. I'm too lazy (and bored by Kerry) to listen to or read the total transcript.
But yeah, any justification would be only to stop Assad from massacring his own population. But since that's already happened, and anyone with any sense has already fled the country, there seems little more that can be done besides even up the death toll.
We would be 6 years too late.
Its probably at that point you let god sort it out, or try to take Assad to a war crimes court. But in the end, I suspect he spends his old age in Russia.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.