20 June, 2013

Fareed Zakaria: Obama’s Syria policy is full of contradictions - The Washington Post

Fareed Zakaria: Obama’s Syria policy is full of contradictions - The Washington Post: One of the U.S. Army’s most intelligent officers, Maj. Gen. H.R. McMaster, wrote a study of the Vietnam War that detailed this error. He described Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 plan as one of incremental pressure that “depended on the assumption that the limited application of force would compel the North Vietnamese to the negotiating table and exact from them a favorable diplomatic settlement.” The strategy, McMaster noted, was “fundamentally flawed.” The enemy is fighting to win — not playing a negotiating game.

The chance that our current efforts in Syria will do enough to achieve even our stated objectives is small. Eventually, the contradictions in U.S. policy will emerge and the Obama administration will face calls for further escalation.