In the past, rogue states with WMD could argue they needed them to deter US attack.
With the Syria deal, President Obama has established the doctrine that if you use chemical weapons on your own civilians, you can avoid the expense of actually maintaining a WMD arsenal by agreeing to get rid of the WMD in exchange for a US pledge guaranteed by Russia not to attack:
Even if Assad does declare and destroy his entire CW stockpile, he will have emerged unpunished for having used these terror weapons. Mr. Obama told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday that "my entire goal throughout this exercise is to make sure that what happened on August 21st does not happen again."
That isn't how he and Mr. Kerry described their goal over the last two weeks when Mr. Obama explicitly urged a military strike to "make clear to the world we will not tolerate their use," referring to chemical weapons. Assad will have violated what Mr. Obama repeatedly called "international norms"—killing at least 1,400 people including 400 children—and then get a pass for promising not to do again what he claims he didn't do but Mr. Kerry says he did at least 14 times.
And then you spend your money on Russian weapons to kill your people with old-fashioned means like bombs, bullets, and bayonets without America raising a stink.
Really, let's not bicker and argue over who killed who.
This deal is supposed to be a happy occasion!
I really just don't get nuance.
