A significant achievement of the human race: It succeeded in banning chemical weapons.

[blm]

43. When did it become an 'excuse to commit atrocities'

in regard to Obama and Kerry?

Especially when people SHOULD know by now, had they done even a little bit of research on Syria the past few weeks, that it had been Kerry protecting Assad from war hawks in US and personally guiding him towards accepting peaceful measures since 2005. Kerry was pretty successful with that, until Arab Spring triggered a paranoia in Assad that is increasingly controlling the lengths and brutality of his actions.

Kerry earned the right to judge Assad's actions, judge his mental state now, and judge what he is capable of doing in the near future. No one else from the US bothered to engage Assad to prevent war. Kerry did it on his own. His word regarding Assad now should be considered in the historic CONTEXT of those efforts.