Series continues to bear fruit long after their passing. It is also important to remember the contributions of many who support the work we do in the center. That includes student research, fellowships, travel, public programming, and Public Education, so i would like to thank all of our friends at the center who are here today. And this being an event on the topic of civic religion, i salute you as well. For those of you just learning about the centers work or maybe this is the first time attending our talks and you enjoyed the lecture and valued the work we are doing to understand the past and make sense of the current moment and help collectively shape our shared future, i would encourage you to become a friend of the center. There are envelopes scattered around the room, maybe stuck to the bottom of your shoes. Feel free to grab one of those. As well, there is also a signup sheet in the back that you can get on for our mailing list. Finally, while i am dispensing thank yous i , wou
About president obamas legacy on syria and the Trump Administration moving forward. Thispress conference afternoon, secretary mattis says isis remains the target. Joining me is tony blinken, the former Deputy National security adviser for president obama. Joining me here is bret stephens, a columnist for the wall street journal. I want to begin with a column that got a lot of attention. The price of obamas mendacity. Theres always this debate about the wisdom of Barack Obamas decision to forgo a similar strike in 2013. Thats the beginning. Mr. Obama and his advisers will never run out of self justifications for their policy in syria. They cant out run responsibility for the consequences of their lies. After president obama, kerryent putin, and john went through the agreement for syria to ban the stockpile of chemical weapons, information began to emerge that the syrians were cheating on the agreement. It started filtering out in 2014. The wall street journal had a frontpage story on th
About president obamas legacy on syria and the Trump Administration moving forward. Thispress conference afternoon, secretary mattis says isis remains the target. Joining me is tony blinken, the former Deputy National security adviser for president obama. Joining me here is bret stephens, a columnist for the wall street journal. I want to begin with a column that got a lot of attention. The price of obamas mendacity. Theres always this debate about the wisdom of Barack Obamas decision to forgo a similar strike in 2013. Thats the beginning. Mr. Obama and his advisers will never run out of self justifications for their policy in syria. They cant out run responsibility for the consequences of their lies. After president obama, kerryent putin, and john went through the agreement for syria to ban the stockpile of chemical weapons, information began to emerge that the syrians were cheating on the agreement. It started filtering out in 2014. The wall street journal had a frontpage story on th
Rose welcome to the program. Tonight we take a look at what the Trump Administration did in syria and compare it with what the Obama Administration did when it decided to take a deal and not engage in an airstrike. Joining me, Bret Stephens of the wall street journal and tony blinken, former deputy, National Security advisor and deputy secretary of state. Any of us who had any responsibility for our Foreign Policy during this period will have to live with the fact that we didnt end the Syrian Civil War, and well have to live with the fact that, as you rightly said, hundreds of thousands of syrians are dead. Yes, that is on our watch. Its also on the watch of the syrians. Its on the watch of every single neighbor of sir. I cant its on the watch of iran and russia. There is plenty of blame to go around and, as the leading country in the world, we should take our share of it. But it wasnt for want of trying to do the right thing, making the best judgments we could. Maybe they were wrong,
Rose welcome to the program. Tonight we take a look at what the Trump Administration did in syria and compare it with what the Obama Administration did when it decided to take a deal and not engage in an airstrike. Joining me, Bret Stephens of the wall street journal and tony blinken, former deputy, National Security advisor and deputy secretary of state. Any of us who had any responsibility for our Foreign Policy during this period will have to live with the fact that we didnt end the Syrian Civil War, and well have to live with the fact that, as you rightly said, hundreds of thousands of syrians are dead. Yes, that is on our watch. Its also on the watch of the syrians. Its on the watch of every single neighbor of sir. I cant its on the watch of iran and russia. There is plenty of blame to go around and, as the leading country in the world, we should take our share of it. But it wasnt for want of trying to do the right thing, making the best judgments we could. Maybe they were wrong,