i think i won t be the first to be critical of the way things have been sequenced over the last ten days or so. i think he s left himself now with that speech that on on the one hand, on the other hand, in a very rough place, both in terms of domestic politics and in terms of rallying any sort of coalition at the u.n. or anywhere else to make this come out in a way that achieves his objectives. jeff, how is he being viewed in tehran, in jerusalem, in damascus, in moscow? each of those capitals has its own issues. look, you know, there is more coherence to these two parts than some people might think. i mean, in fact, the threat of force, though done in a kind of scatter shot, halfhearted way, all the problems in congress, the threat of force is why we re here, is why the russians have put forward a proposal at all, no matter how ridiculous people might think the proposal is, it s there. in jerusalem, for instance,
there are serious doubts about whether he would carry through. on a much harder issue, the iran issue. in damascus, they want to they think they have found, i assume, a ploy to keep america from bombing, which is to say, let s just talk about moving our chemical weapons out forever. so you have different reactions in different places. but we re in a pause right now. we re in a real strategic pause. well, the question i have, mark, is there a real threat of force if we now know that if he had a vote in congress now, he would lose and lose probably the rest of his second term? dmesing agenda, all the rest of it. how real is the threat of force if he s going to go back to congress? or, if provoked by syria or the diplomacy fails, would he go it alone without coming back to congress? he told savannah the other day he s undecided. perhaps he still is about whether he could or would strike with that congress authority. it s hard to see how he gets back to momentum regardless of what ha
reason for him to be using chemical weapons considering he is winning the conflict right now on the ground and he can win by using conventional weapons. and he knows the consequences of using such weapons. it makes no sense from a military sense. the rebels don t have the delivery systems capable of going this and the u.s. tracked where the rockets were fired from and my understanding that is this area in damascus that was hit with an area that the regime has not been able to take over or push the rebels out for the last year. yeah, it s rebel-controlled, that s true. and we know that the rebels have over the past two and a half years, have captured numerous equipment, tanks, artillery pieces. andrew, do you believe that it s the regime?
rebels or the terrorists in this region or any other group have it. it would happen. i don t know. i m not a fortune teller to tell you what s going to happen. syria s dictator, exercising his command of the passive voice. he sat down with charlie rose in damascus. tonight he is here in our fifth chair. when he talked about terrorists there possibly using chemical weapons is he he said they did it. they used chemical weapons in aleppo. there is not a shred of evidence. but it s so important because it s a huge ripple effect has happened. because the they got the chemical weapons they would not use them? i don t know. we are not talking about hypotheticals but about what has happened. we need to take stock of the
region or any other group have it. it would happen. i don t know. i m not a fortune teller to tell you what s going to happen. syria s dictator, exercising his command of the passive voice. he sat down with charlie rose in damascus. tonight he is here in our fifth chair. when he talked about terrorists there possibly using chemical weapons is he he said they did it. they used chemical weapons in aleppo. there is not a shred of evidence. but it s so important because it s a huge ripple effect has happened. because the they got the chemical weapons they would not use them? i don t know. we are not talking about hypotheticals but about what has happened. we need to take stock of the fact that weapons of mass destruction have been used. this is a really terrifying prospect to me that if they are used and they are used with