eliminated by mid-2014. the syrian reconciliation minister said the agreement would avoid war and was a victory for syria. the next step is a u.n. resolution formalizing the process, and despite skepticism about syrian compliance, let's all take a second to recognize that this is a pretty amazing, peaceful resolution to what looked just a few weeks ago like an intractable, international crisis moving towards a military strike and further u.s. entanglement in a very bloody and brutal mideast war. as a solution to the precise and now a problem that president obama has identified, the need to reinforce the international norm against the use of chemical weapons. today, u.n. weapons inspectors presented their report to the u.n. security council, finding clear and convincing evidence that, indeed, the nerve gas sarin was used on august 21st in a rocket attack launched in the suburbs of damascus. and while the report was not tasked with and does not draw conclusions about who was responsible for the attack, reading between the lines of the