By sharp contrast to the way U.S. Congress is working these days, the UN Security Council “unanimously adopted a binding resolution on ridding Syria of chemical weapons.”
To review, the U.N. was motivated to act by this list of events:
1. Congressional hawks, Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham pressured the administration to support Syrian rebels. They did that by visiting with rebels and requesting weapons support for them.
2. President Obama resisted arming the rebels while agreeing to provide humanitarian aid. The reason that he did not arm the rebels is because their commitment to democracy is suspect and because the rebels contain radical Islamists include al Qaeda.
3. Following the use of chemical weapons in Syria where the government has stockpiles and for which evidenced pointed toward government culpability, President Obama threatened use of military force against the Syrian government.
4. Some members of Congress in both parties wavered in supporting military action, but President Obama asserted his power as commander-in-chief to make good on the threat to punish Bashar al Assad and the Syrian government.
5. President Obama appealed for allied support and got it from France and Germany, and not from Great Britain. President Obama continued to press for support at the G20 conference.
6. As a result, Russian President Putin came forward with an offer to produce Syrian cooperation in dismantling chemical weapons under the U.N. Security Council supervision.
7. President Obama agreed to pursue negotiations with the Russians because no one wanted another U.S. military intervention, not at home nor abroad.
8. Today, responsibility for disarmament is where it needs to be, back at the U.N. Security Council.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress is distracted from world events while renegade Republicans seek to sabotage the U.S. government. The whole world is watching.
“Syria chemical weapons: UN adopts binding resolution
John Kerry: "Diplomacy can be so powerful that it can peacefully defuse the worst weapons of war"
The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a binding resolution on ridding Syria of chemical weapons.
At a session in New York, the 15-member body backed the draft document agreed earlier by Russia and the US.
The deal breaks a two-and-a-half year deadlock in the UN over Syria, where fighting between government forces and rebels rages on.
The vote came after the international chemical watchdog agreed on a plan to destroy Syria's stockpile by mid-2014."
