I have read the transcript of the President's speech.
I read Mr Putin's rebuttal.
Interesting reads, both.
That the stonewalling has commenced is no surprise at all. The record the international community has for getting results -- see specifically the 1991 cease fire agreement and its requirements, never fully complied with, regarding Iraq -- is abysmal.
Can someone point me to a success in the last 30 years on that score?
I don't think the development of an Iranian bomb can be stopped. India's nuclear capability is juxtaposed with Pakistan's nuclear capability. The point Mr Putin's article makes isn't any new insight: it's a replay of the 1950's reality that eventually led to the NPT, a treaty of dubious quality. I suppose it seemed like a good idea at the time, and is better than nothing.
Treaties are only as effective as their enforcement or willing adherence, otherwise a lot of them are relegated to the "scraps of paper" category of diplomatic efforts.
We have discussed the practical issues of how to implement any UN/International/External disposition of Syria's various chemical stocks. That discussion will doubtless be revisited in the next few weeks and months as negotiations take the usual eternity to arrive at an acceptable (to all parties) plan of action.
Meanwhile, the Syrian civil war will continue, most likely without the use of chemical weapons. As I noted elsewhere, there are sufficient conventional munitions to keep the body bag business booming.
There has been great rejoicing that American arms will not blow a bunch of stuff up in that little corner of the world any time soon. How nice. Should anyone rejoice that the Syrian civil war has no end in sight?
Since the "limited strikes" probably would not have ended that war (had they been undertaken) I may have crafted a
non sequitur there.
Beags:
Kerry and McCain seem to want any excuse to lay waste to other peoples' nations, whilst Obama appears to be a complete dunce due to his ineptitude over the Syria Crisis
.
Might this be a deliberate 'good cop bad cop' ploy, particularly the Kerry / Obama contrast? McCain's been a loose cannon for years, and he's not part of the administration.