danivon wrote:

Ray Jay wrote:I think Hagel said one thing, and then his staff corrected him and refined his comment.

Which puts some doubt on what he actually said being accurate, doesn't it?

Ray Jay wrote:Yes. All normal stuff. I'm no fan of Hagel, but this doesn't make him a boob. I'm sure SEC DEF is a very hard job.

GMTom wrote:so anyone who admits to a crime can simply say, Ooops, I didn't actually mean what i said and it magically goes away?

Just move on to something substantial, please guys. This is really boring.

rickyp wrote:So far so ggod.

AMSTERDAM, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Syria has handed over information about its chemical arsenal to a U.N.-backed weapons watchdog, meeting the first deadline of an ambitious disarmament operation that averted the threat of Western air strikes.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said on Saturday it had "received the expected disclosure" from Damascus, 24 hours after saying it had been given a partial document from Syrian authorities.

But a senior Russian official suggested on Saturday that if there were clear indications that Assad were not committed to handing over chemical weapons, Moscow may stop supporting him.

"I'm talking theoretically and hypothetically, but if we became sure that Assad is cheating, we could change our position," said Sergei Ivanov, chief of staff for President Vladimir Putin

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/ ... C620130921

Earlier today in Jakarta, having finished bloviating about global warming, Kerry complained that Syria’s Bashar Assad has been “stonewalling” in the Geneva peace talks:

Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday accused Syrian President Bashar Assad of stonewalling in peace talks and called on Russia to push its ally to negotiate with opposition leaders.

“Right now, Bashar Assad has not engaged in the discussions along the promised and required standard that both Russia spoke up for and the regime spoke up for,” Kerry said during a press conference in Jakarta.

Of course he is stonewalling, you fool! He is winning.

He said the Syrian leader’s team “refused to open up one moment of discussion” of a transitional government to replace Assad’s regime. “It is very clear that Bashar Assad is trying to win this on the battlefield instead of coming to the negotiating table in good faith,” Kerry added.

Really? That’s very clear, is it? Good Lord, what a chump! Remember when Kerry promised that any military effort against Assad would be “incredibly small”? That struck fear into Assad’s heart, no doubt; and even that “incredibly small” possibility was taken off the board when Kerry started mumbling out loud about chemical weapons. Why would Assad do anything other than “try to win on the battlefield,” let alone agree to a “transitional government to replace [his] regime”? Earth to Kerry: that’s what you do when you’re losing on the battlefield.

Russia has told the U.S. it was committed to helping create a transitional government, Kerry said, but has not delivered “the kind of effort to create the kind of dynamic by which that could be achieved.”

Peace talks last week in Geneva ended with no progress toward breaking the impasse in the nearly 3-year-old conflict in Syria.

danivon wrote:So what should be done about Syria?

danivon wrote:And then what? it's all very well criticising what the governments of the USA and of other countries are doing, but what is the actual solution?

danivon wrote:So, go on, consider where we are and tell us what should be done.

Hey, you could also tell us what should have been done last year or the year before if you like.

Repeating that you don't like how Kerry and Obama have handled it is not adding anything new. We already worked out where you stand on that.

if there is not a 'solution', then can you blame anyone for not finding it?

danivon wrote:You got nothing, right? Just admit that other than slagging off Obama and his government, you have nothing constructive to say on the subject.