Speaking last night at the University of Miami, Hillary Clinton was asked about the Syrian civil war. Clinton, oddly, called the recent failed deal that she backed between the United States and Bashar Al Assad to remove his chemical weapons a “positive step,” even though Assad with Russian assistance has reneged on his end of the deal, kept his chemical weapons and faces no retaliation for crossing Obama and Clinton’s “red line.”
Though Clinton called for more of the deal to be “fulfilled,” current Secretary of State John Kerry has already admitted that the deal and the Administration’s broader attempts at diplomacy with Assad have failed, telling a closed-door room of Congressmen as much earlier this month:
Secretary of State John Kerry has lost faith in his own administration’s Syria policy, he told fifteen U.S. Congressmen in a private, off-the-record meeting, according to two of the senators who were in the room. Kerry also said he believes the regime of Bashar al Assad is failing to uphold its promise to give up its chemical weapons according to schedule; that the Russians are not being helpful in solving the Syrian civil war; and that the Geneva 2 peace talks that he helped organize are not succeeding. But according to the senators, Kerry now wants to arm Syria’s rebels-in part, to block the local al Qaeda affiliates who have designs on attacking the U.S. (Kerry’s spokesperson denied that he now wants to supply weapons, but did not dispute the overall tenor of the conversation.)
“[Kerry] acknowledged that the chemical weapons [plan] is being slow rolled, the Russians continue to supply arms, we are at a point now where we are going to have to change our strategy,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, who attended Kerry’s briefing with lawmakers on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
This is just the latest chapter in Clinton’s bungled policy on Syria.