Syria - Obama Presidency Oral History Back Syria Index / Locations Transcripts Jeff Flake ...vote to authorize the use of force in Syria , in late 2013, which strikes me as ... ...probably led to a different outcome in Syria and maybe spared us a lot of what we'v... Michael Mullen ...going to back out of the Middle East. Syria is a good example of that. We're no... ...were happening so fast, and including Syria was starting to come unwound righ... ...at that point. But when you look at Syria after that, and look at Chechnya, yo... ...is one; Egypt is another; Syria is another—when I visited Egypt, ... ...but it's not a passing thought— Syria was starting to come unwound. And w... ...paying precious little attention to Syria at the time, because it was burnin... ...regret, which was not doing more in Syria early. And that was after my time. Yo... Show more... Michael Morell ...into ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ] in a few years. So, that is th... ...there? So, on the struggle issue, Syria . Syria was really, really hard. Th... ...So, on the struggle issue, Syria. Syria was really, really hard. The presiden... ...to this very day. I think in the Syria discussion, that weighed heavily o... ...being. The world would be much better, Syria would be much better, without him. Bu... ...pause was, if Assad leaves, does Syria look like Libya, or does Syria loo... ...does Syria look like Libya, or does Syria look like Iraq after Saddam [Hussein... ...slope to US troops on the ground in Syria , which, of course, everybody wanted t... ...course, everybody wanted to avoid. So Syria was really hard. People were bein... ...taken some more risk than we did. So Syria was really hard. And there are som... ...aspects of it I can't talk about, but Syria was really hard. Before we leav... ...Syria was really hard. Before we leave Syria , can I just ask—this is obviously ... ...Yemen, and then in Libya, and then in Syria . The policy team's inclination was, W... ...you after you were talking about Syria , and I apologize for that. But I'm no... Show more... William Burns ...foreign policy issues, from Iran to Syria . Yes. Where did this idea com... ...but there's a lot of focus on Libya and Syria . I just wanted to ask why Egyp... ...cases in the Arab Spring, Egypt, Libya, Syria , and any others that you want to tal... ...and we may talk about Bahrain and Syria . Was there a moment at which thi... ...other parts of the Arab world. Even in Syria , deeply repressive state, in Daraa i... ...repressive state, in Daraa in southern Syria in the same rough time period you bega... ...go south too. We haven't talked about Syria yet, but I actually want to maybe ste... ...kind of dynamic was going to apply in Syria , that sooner or later Assad was goin... ...which would emerge in the civil war in Syria but didn't yet dominate the battlefiel... ...next? Where does this lead?” And in Syria , in particular, it was hard a lot o... ...bloody consequences of the civil war in Syria and the failures of American diplomacy... ...before Obama called for his departure. Syria , as I said, the fundamental flaw i... ...rise of ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ], it was almost inevitable that th... Show more... Anne Patterson ...Defense Strategy in 2017 and the Syria Study Group in 2019. With that, th... ...took place all over the Middle East— Syria , Yemen, Oman. Some of those place... ...of a struggle in places like Yemen or Syria , so less than we thought. Perhaps t... ...What consumed most of the time was Syria . Overwhelmingly that was the bi... ...Egypt, became quite secondary. It was Syria , and it was essentially what to d... ...and it was essentially what to do about Syria . The second issue was the [Persian... ...and ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ]. But as far as I was concerned, ther... ...That was not, of course, unrelated to Syria , most of the ISIS supporters. Th... ...debate was what to do about Syria . Secretary Kerry worked tirelessly o... ...this administration—so what to do about Syria . Secretary Kerry, I thought, did abou... ...get Bashar al-Assad out and move Syria to some sort of democratic transition... ...transition. Now, here's the rub on the Syria policy. President Obama was determine... ...to Congress for support on strikes in Syria . I wanted to ask why you thought tha... ...not nearly as much time, as they did on Syria because I think, first of all, it'... ...the spillover effects of what we saw in Syria . I mean, it had terrible effects o... ...started to flow out to the Sinai, to Syria , to every battleground on the planet... ...have the effects on everybody else that Syria had. Just to ask a question. The Syri... ...Syria had. Just to ask a question. The Syria issue, as you mentioned, is stil... ...which got a lot less attention than Syria , but still got plenty of attention... ...Not really. They were involved in the Syria discussions. I think people had lots o... ...issues, yes, people didn't like our Syria policy. Okay, what's your alternative... Show more... Mark Lippert ...that happened was the red line in Syria . The Pentagon stood ready to execute... ...they actually think we're smart status Syria . The only thing that really matters i... Anne-Marie Slaughter ...sense of the events in Egypt, Tunisia, Syria ? Largely the role of social media, bu... ...about—I guess, Egypt, Libya, and Syria all happen in relatively shor... ...in Libya was different than it was in Syria ? Did you think the administration wa... ...Libya's a mess. But is it worse than Syria ? I don't know. And I definitely thin... ...with the Obama administration on Syria . I just felt that, although ... ...Libya directly colored the decision on Syria ? Or, in your reading, were ther... ...of the decision not to intervene in Syria for humanitarian purposes. Why do yo... ...there was no decision like that in Syria ? So I do think that one affected th... ...badly. They couldn't see a way out of Syria . And Obama, who is cautious, took th... ...very bad place to be. Then, of course, Syria , which was just an open wound, bu... Show more... Load more Transcripts Related Topics go to the Russia Russia go to the Hawaii Hawaii go to the Science Science go to the Chicago Chicago go to the Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa