Obama administration ‘delusional’ on Syria chemical weapons deal - U.S. Senator

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON D.C. 

In a heated exchange with Obama administration officials, U.S. Senator Bob Corker lambasted the administration for being delusional about the effects of a chemical weapons deal which he claimed bolstered the Syrian government. 

“With respect, I think you’re delusional,” said Corker during a Senate Foreign Relations Hearing on Syria Wednesday. “The best thing he [Assad] ever did was kill 1,200 citizens with chemical weapons, because us and Russia and others have now propped him up and used that 1,200 person killing to allow 40,000 more people to be killed.”

Thomas Countryman, Obama’s Assistant Secretary for International Security and Nonproliferation, retorted, “I would simply say that chemical weapons were never an important part of the military equation causing the tragedy in Syria, and their elimination does not fundamentally alter the military equation that causes today's situation.”

Half of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles have been removed from the country, though 65 percent of Syria’s most potent chemical weapons have yet to be removed, Countryman said. 

During the Senate hearing, the administration was derided for its inability to properly equip the moderate opposition and change Syria’s battlefield. 

“This is a colossal failure of American ability to help people who are struggling for freedom,” said Senator John McCain, a vocal critic of the administration’s Syria policy. 

“Anybody knew that as long as Bashar Assad was winning, they would not agree to transition from power,” McCain said of recent peace talks in Geneva.

Asked by McCain how the administration’s efforts to change Assad’s battlefield calculus were going, Anne Patterson, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, conceded that the administration’s Syria efforts were not going to plan. 

“Not very well, senator,” she said. 

The senators present at Wednesday’s hearing called for a further classified hearing with the officials following the public session to discuss which military options the Obama administration is currently assessing, including current and additional military aid for the opposition.

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