Hillary Clinton appears to have endorsed the last-minute alternative to U.S. military action in Syria, where the Assad regime gives up its chemical weapons:
If Syria’s government immediately surrendered its chemical weapons stockpiles to international control, “that would be an important step,” former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday during an event at the White House. “But this cannot be another excuse for delay or obstruction. And Russia has to support the international community’s efforts sincerely or be held to account.”
A system of international inspectors will sound like a good idea to anyone who has completely forgotten the United Nations’ inspection of the Iraqi programs for weapons of mass destruction from 1991 to 2003. That inspection system was marked by intermittent cooperation from Saddam Hussein’s regime, punctuated by occasional U.S. bombing when the regime failed to cooperate, and an oil-for-food program that generated $10.1 billion in illegal revenues for Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Obviously, international inspections will be impossible in a country currently experiencing a civil war.
It appears the Obama administration will happily trade an “unbelievably small” military action for faux inspections.
A cinematic portrayal of Hans Blix, head of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission from March 2000 to June 2003.