Syria - Obama Presidency Oral History

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Marielena Hincapié

...than a mother and a child fleeing Syria and going across the Mediterranean t...

Tommy Vietor

...for Yemen, or a young policy person on Syria , and whenever I could, I would jus...
...left the White House by the time the Syria strike, “red line” debate hit Congres...
...building. And then in places like Syria , initially, that was incredibl...
...an enormous benefit for the people of Syria , and frankly, it got real close. Like...

Michael Kassen

...things had yet happened in Egypt or in Syria . It was, obviously, a very turbulen...
...on its northern border, in Lebanon and Syria . It has Egypt, which is relativel...
...in 1981 in Iraq and then in 2007 in Syria . Iran is more difficult. But I don'...

Harry Reid

...do with ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ]. You called for an ISIS czar, as th...

Dennis Ross

...on other issues as well; like Iran and Syria . So later on there are som...
...administration in 2011, that Libya and Syria are going to be major issues in th...
...there was such a predisposition on Syria that Syria not become Iraq, that we no...
...was such a predisposition on Syria that Syria not become Iraq, that we not someho...
...now, who are identifying those within Syria who are natural partners. When I rais...

...about why we do so little in Syria . Although you have the president, h...
...months—I see a young lawyer from Homs [ Syria ] who's part of the Homs Revolutionar...
...not ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ], not al-Qaeda, not these, the wors...
...Christians. The rest are Sunni Arabs. Syria , the majority are Sunni and it's ...
...minority-led regime. The minorities in Syria , they see the Sunnis as going to swam...
...is, they don't want any part of Syria . And by the way, I get that. ...
...in Libya we repeat the mistake. In Syria , we overlearn a lesson because th...
...during 2012, the balance within Syria switched very much to the Islamists. I...
...politically that Hillary was leading on Syria and on Libya. But the basi...
...feel for what is the landscape within Syria . For example, the French have a lot o...
...focused on the costs of action in Syria , never the cost of inaction.” Had h...
...regret of his presidency will be Syria when you see what the costs are. ...

Mara Rudman

...became the overwhelming dominance of Syria . I remember when the Syria issue...
...dominance of Syria. I remember when the Syria issues started, and there was a lot o...
...is going to shift away from Yemen to Syria and that's going to cost us. I woul...

Derek Chollet

...started, and then, soon after that, Syria started. There was just a cascade o...
...asked about was what was happening in Syria , what was happening in Ukraine; an...
...in Libya or Tunisia or Egypt or Syria , the president is also still trying t...
...on considerations moving forward in Syria , which we can get into. I want t...
...here, and maybe the transition into Syria is that, I think you cannot understan...

...the Obama administration's approach to Syria without understanding what happened i...
...the Libya campaign ended was when the Syria war really started to heat up. So ther...
...in Libya to what was happening in Syria . So all these questions that we wer...
...questions that we were confronting in Syria in terms of US military intervention...
...on that. But those were all at play in Syria . It was just a lot worse and a lo...
...just a lot worse and a lot harder in Syria . So Libya was actually an easier case...
...turn out so well. So here you have Syria , which is a much-harder case, in whic...
...wrong were exponentially higher in Syria than they were in Libya. Can I ask yo...
...a little bit more about that? What made Syria harder, on its face, of a polic...
...support for much of anything in Syria , whereas in Libya it was almos...
...Libya when you compare it to Iraq. And Syria was more like Iraq, where you had a lo...
...you had a lot of hand-wringing about Syria , but there weren't many countries, i...
...to go in militarily,” in terms of Syria . So you didn't have the internationa...
...UN Security Council was deadlocked on Syria because of what happened with Libya, b...
...authorities even to do something in Syria versus Libya. The level of violence an...
...violence and the sectarian divides in Syria were far deeper and more intense tha...
...just because it helps illustrate the Syria problem, is that in Libya, particularl...
...the highest bidder, or taken. So with Syria , we had those concerns times forty...
...about in Libya, we had over forty in Syria . And a chemical weapons program i...
...And a chemical weapons program in Syria that had not been declared. The Syrian...
...if we were to militarily intervene, or Syria were to crater like Libya, the botto...
...regime in Libya or the Assad regime in Syria to end something that it was doing tha...
...administration much more cautious on Syria ; because the magnitude of the Syri...
...on Syria; because the magnitude of the Syria challenge was so much bigger. So ou...
...we're going to be able to take on Syria ? How did this shape the discussion o...
...this shape the discussion of options in Syria ? Is intervention off the table at tha...
...the horror of what was happening in Syria was also exponentially worse. In Libya...
...That's a whole other story. But with Syria , as the civil war really got underwa...
...Libya but only much more pronounced in Syria , a lot of internal discussion, focu...
...discussion, focus on the disposition of Syria 's chemical weapons program; becaus...
...in the administration, the view was Syria 's civil war is a tragedy. It'...
...not a core US national interest whether Syria devolved in the civil war or not. I...
...either the use of chemical weapons in Syria , or you would see a facility tha...
...we see chemical weapons on the loose in Syria , it's going to change my calculatio...
...cooperation at the same level in Syria . Can you say a little bit more abou...
...in Libya. Neither of those applied to Syria . In Syria, of course you had allie...
...Neither of those applied to Syria. In Syria , of course you had allies saying the...
...of being involved in something in Syria , but being very vague about what tha...
...regional support for US efforts inside Syria , at least initially. That changed ove...
...weren't going to authorize anything in Syria . Moreover, they were working hard t...
...they were working hard to protect Syria , which was kind of their client...
...the dynamic of these were not—I guess Syria maybe a little bit, but they weren't ...
...another group, I don't think. I mean, Syria was a little different because of th...
...It was peaceful protests in Syria and Libya. It was lawyers protesting...
...East, because whether it was Iran, Syria , Iraq, Egypt, Israel, Libya, that wa...
...out of Iran. Then, of course, when Syria really started to unravel—2012, 2013...
...focused on what was going on inside Syria and the potential threat it could be t...
...proxies or Iranian forces directly in Syria —but then also related to Egypt, an...
...the Brits had opted out of Syria . The Brits, they were in the mi...
...and NATO. A topic we didn't get to was Syria . We did talk about the Arab Spring an...
...administration should do about Assad in Syria , and whether you saw it at the time a...
...there were specific dynamics about Syria that kind of defined the possibl...
...the—I had been starting to work on Syria at the tail end of my time at the Whit...
...to oversee the IPC-level process on Syria planning and what we're going to d...
...of the war that was unfolding inside Syria . Within a few months of me being a...
...came forth about the disposition of Syria 's chemical weapons arsenal and what w...
...influence the trajectory of the war in Syria to try to get Assad to end his campaig...
...those were kind of my pieces of the Syria puzzle. Let's maybe take the secon...
...on US action in the context of Syria at that time? It would've been 2013...
...from could we crater the runways in Syria to make it harder, if not impossible...
...the feasibility of it, not just in Syria but really ever, for that matter. Whe...
...ahead of things, but our experience in Syria and our experience ever since in place...
...period, the risks to the disposition of Syria 's chemical weapons arsenal. That wa...
...to get into a spiraling conflict with Syria , would it increase or decrease th...
...to arm and train the opposition in Syria . There's been a lot of commentar...
...use of US power to try to influence Syria , it is hard to disentangle that fro...
...from the decision to launch strikes on Syria in retaliation for that use. But I hea...
...That was Libya. It bleeds right into Syria in the summer of 2012 [unclear] reall...
...of 2012 [unclear] really heating up. Syria 's chemical weapons arsenal wa...
...sites that we had assessed where Syria had chemical weapons, thousands of ton...
...material. Of course, at the time, Syria denied it had a chemical weapon...
...we knew about the CW program in Syria was something we gleaned through inte...
...worried about what's happening with Syria 's chemical weapons, because report...
...But we are really worried about Syria 's chemical weapons because we have n...
...the level of anxiety and concern about Syria 's CW. Again, we did plenty of plannin...
...on our hands as the fighting in Syria continued to get worse. Then, o...
...of course, the nightmare happened, and Syria used chemical weapons. We were able t...
...authorization to use force in Syria . Because his view was—I think ther...
...Look, if we're going to go to war in Syria , which is what we were talking about...
...their staffs about what was going on in Syria and what we were asking for, and how w...
...to evacuate the chemical weapons from Syria . Was your office, or were you...
...the time to be almost all, if not all, Syria 's chemical weapons. Just to show ho...
...chemical weapons materials to ports in Syria . It would get offloaded onto Danish o...
...been so preoccupied with the threat of Syria 's chemical weapons. And the fact tha...
...the ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ] challenge erupts. And we, the Unite...
...States, begin sustained airstrikes on Syria ; basically proceed over the course o...
...And we did so without any concern about Syria 's chemical weapons and whether or no...
...never about that. It was always about Syria 's chemical weapons. It wasn't abou...
...if Obama had—when the offer to remove Syria 's chemical weapons peacefully ha...
...he wanted?” Which was to get rid of Syria 's chemical weapons. To this day, ...
...got all those chemical weapons out of Syria . I just imagine what the world woul...
...tons of chemical weapons sitting around Syria today. I can think of a lot o...
...never getting all the chlorine out of Syria , and so there was a question that it'...
...in Assad's mind that our bombing of Syria could actually lead to him. That's a...
...were careful about bombing areas inside Syria that were not—we didn't want t...
...with risk. Even though we were bombing Syria every day, meaning the territory o...
...every day, meaning the territory of Syria , and we weren't coordinating in an...
...like ISIS-K [Islamic State of Iraq and Syria –Khorasan Province] and the Taliban...

Michael McFaul

...then you had the events of Libya and Syria , which became very violent. That, ...
...then it's Libya immediately after, and Syria immediately after as well. Maybe let'...
...is quite important during this time. Syria , of course, which you write about i...
...the backbenchers to the policy towards Syria or Iran or Ukraine. That made it eve...
...diplomacy. I spent a ton of time on Syria and Ukraine. Both of those i...

...Both of those in particular, probably Syria more than anything, interacting wit...

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Syria - Obama Presidency Oral History

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