If President Obama had declared from the start that no military action would be taken against Syria

[Nye Bevan]

under any circumstances, would Syria at this point be contemplating relinquishing control of its chemical weapons?

5 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Yes. No military threats were needed. Gentle diplomacy alone would have persuaded Assad to do the right thing.
	2 (40%)
	No. It was President Obama's credible threats of military action that moved Assad to where he is now.
	3 (60%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[JoePhilly]

1. Assad wasn't going to accept any deal, until Russia told him to take it.

And Russia told him to take the deal, because it became clear that Obama was not bluffing.

[el_bryanto]

2. IT depends on what other techniques we used

What if we imposed serious economic sanctions against his government?

Bryant

[dionysus]

3. i doubt simply asking him to stop would do anything.

this whole thing is a clusterfuck... as much as i'd like to see Assad punished... us going it alone is not the way, it could work, but we could also make things infinitely worse. and as long as we're willing to be world policeman, no one else will step up and do anything.

hopefully we can get out of this somehow.

[liberal_at_heart]

4. There's no way of knowing. I don't trust our government to bluff. They have proven before that they

are willing to call other country's bluffs. If diplomacy fails, and a limited strike fails our government will be under tremendous pressure to expand the military action. And I am not willing to take that risk. I will not support military action in Syria.

[Uncle Joe]

5. It's doubtful, but on the other hand if the American People hadn't so ardently spoken out against

attacking Syria, would Obama have backed off to push for a diplomatic solution?

These and other questions will probably never be answered as "The Days of Our Lives" continue.

Thanks for the thread, Nye Beyan

[bluedigger]

6. Sometimes you can dislike the method and still applaud the result.

Assuming that the result is Syria being disarmed of it's chemical arsenal, I'm not going to quibble too much about who cooked the pie or how. Gunboat diplomacy is nothing new to American politics.