in the future, what i think that means is that the future political solution of who controls syria means assad is not involved, you know. the reason we have a problem with refugees is because of assad. the reason that there was a civil war that created a space to allow a group like isis to come in is because of assad. assad has violated the chemical weapons convention on more than a dozen occasions. we ve talked about the one from a week ago, but he s done this on many occasions. so, he cannot be involved in the future of the country and that means the russians need to pull back their air force and to support assad and syrian forces. which brings the question, ambassador, if assad goes, who takes over? that s the real question nobody addresses, and it s a very serious question. while i agree with the congressman completely, that assad s a brute, a war criminal,
well go on for days. butng to a lot of experts, the pressure on president assad is growing day by day. and that is why there is the concern about the use of these chemical weapons because they say in many ways now, president assad is like a cornered rat. shep? shepard: jonathan, still so many questions about what happens after assad. yeah, and that s one of the problems here for the international community. we have heard again and again just how many factions there are among the rebels. how many moderates there are. how many hard line islamists there are. the fact that there are al qaeda fighters there as well. so when the president assad goes, in everybody accepts it is a question of when. the question is what happens next and many are predicting a blood bath will follow as all those competing groups try to gain the upper hand and get power in what will obviously be something of a power vacuum when assad goes. once again, it raises the
legitimacy, if you can call it that, is the government and the fear of what might follow if it fell. it s something that the government pronounces and something that you hear internationally. there s not a viable opposition or a transition right now and what i government has going for it, or at least thinks it has going for it is that you have not no idea it will follow us. and the question hanging overall of it is that very one, that secretary of state hillary clinton is asking. what comes next if assad goes. so are you getting any sense that the obama administration is getting closer to what senator mccain and others want, mainly for assad to go? when you see what is going on, the frustration and scenario is something at this point that
israelis are warning that if assad goes, the situation could be worse. at the same time, president has to adopt the position against the regime killing people in the streets. so he s really caught. the real issue is don t ever make threats that you can t follow through. if you ask me what explains the administration s caution and circumspection on this, it is that. this administration has a habit of giving speeches, with grandiose goals, and not being able to follow through. so on this one, i think, yeah, toughen the rhetoric, pull the ambassador out, even increase sanctions, targeted sanctions against syrian regime officials. but anything more than that, if you can t produce it, don t threaten it. in fact, you could argue that we appear to some people fekless for having said gadhafi must go but not being able to make that happen in short term. right. that s a really important transition and segue, welcome to america s new 21st century where the goals are not clear, where