been asking about some of the recrer recent revisionism as to why the national community will be gathering next week. so let me make it clear here today. from the very moment that we announced the goal of holding the geneva conference on syria, we also agreed that the purpose was specifically and solely to implement the 2012 geneva one communique. that purpose, that sole purpose could not have been more clear at the time this was announced and it could not be more clear today. it has been reiterated in international statement after international statement that the parties have signed up to. and venue after venue, in resolution after resolution, including most recently in paris last weekend when both the london 11 and the russian
even canada and the u.k. and that s been another cause for concern. the countries are saying syria is a magnet for anyone with the slightest jihad did i tendencies. i have to stress that you have a country of 22 to 24 million people in sir yeah there s a silent majority that just wants their country back. they just want stability and they know this has gone on for far too long. you showed that incredible graph of the syrian refugees spiraling and 2 million people have spread out. life has become miserable for them. that s not necessarily the reason to launch a strike on syria, but when you look at the dynamics of how syria fits into the broader region and what are the consequences as this goes on and on in syria, there starts to be a kind of emerging consensus, both in the middle east and among syrians i speak to and among some here in the u.s. that a u.s. strike on syria is not going to be pretty but there are very few other ways you can
think of to get out of this mess. laura, i ve been dying for more information about those who have been displaced, the refugees. your site heptd me find out more about the conflict. you talked about the people living in these camps that are pretty horrible, children getting tuberculosis, dealing with crappy water. terrible conditions. but at the same time in these camps people are creating, the writer reports, civilized societies that are not allowed in syria where they can have these sort of political institutions, put their kids in schools that are actually decent and not just sort of rote teaching them islamic lessons and women in positions of leadership. some really interesting things going on in these camps. it s a fascinating dynamic. you see it in the camps and parts of syria that are no longer under assad s control. there s a vibrant civil society in syria. they re trying to organize their communities, everything from
is such a horrible situation we have to do something. i think what we re hearing from a lot of congressional aids is the white house has made that case fairly clearly. people believe that assad was behind the chemical attack and that syria is a humanitarian disaster. they have not explained how exactly our intervention is supposed to make that any better. i think the time line is important for establishing the president s position. the fact that the syrian situation is such a humanitarian crisis is a necessary condition for arguing that we should invade but it s not a sufficient condition. there s another case the white house hasn t made. nothing that we re talking about aims to actually deal with the humanitarian crisis. we re trying to spank them for using chemical weapons which is why the washington post whip couldn t, let s dig into where congress is. in the senate 23 nos, 55 undecided, 22 yess. maybe they ll get through congress, but the house, 178 nos so far, 103 up decided, on
against this, frankly, because they re dead set against the obama s administration s foreign policy against egypt. the same thing for tunisia. if you went through the 22 members of the arab league, you can pick and choose those who have said, don t worry, if you go ahead and do this, we ll pay the check and then we ll send you a con grat gratulatory e-ma the country you mentioned is china. incredibly huge player. how do you expect those conversations to play out? well, krystal, the problem with china is it s been following lock step with russia for one reason. the only interest china has in syria is oil. syria doesn t export a lot of oil at all and it gets $15 million virtually somewhere between 15 and 20 depending on what facility and refinery is operating that it uses to buy arms from russia but it exports that oil to china and china, as