President Obama has won

[karynnj]

170. I actually read the foreign press as well

Of course I see the Russian implied threat -- and I see that they, as the protector of Assad, always had far more leverage than we did. Yet, in the wake of the gas use, they publicly argued first that it did not happen and then that the rebels did it - a possibility that they still insist on.

The whole point of the diplomacy WITH RUSSIA was obviously to get them to use the leverage that they have - that was never in doubt. Whether they would use it was more in doubt.

You could question if JUST US/Russia diplomacy could have led straight to this result, I don't see any sign that it would have from the earliest Russian responses to the claims of chemical weapons use before the US started to speak of action being needed. It also does not appear that they responded after the first US speech which mostly spoke of what had happened and spoke of some response being needed.

As to being too early - I have tried to qualify every statement with a caveat of "if it works".

I still say that the US position is better now than on August 22 - the day after Assad very likely crossed the red line. This is especially so as the exercise on chemical weapons seems to have jump started Geneva 2 - or at least made it more likely. I hope that Obama uses Geneva 2 to quietly move from military (even covert arming of rebels) to political. Remember he has slow walked weapons delivery even when he was pushed by politics to authorize them.