We can't un-make the bad deal we made with the Russians over Syria. Assad has bought time to try to defeat the rebels free from the worry that we will launch air attacks on his forces.
But can we drastically reduce the time needed to destroy the chemical weapons?
The Pentagon is suggesting the world's chemical weapons watchdog uses a U.S.-made mobile destruction unit in Syria to neutralize the country's toxic stockpile, officials told Reuters.
It gave a briefing on the unit on Tuesday to officials at the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, who are deciding what technology to use for the ambitious chemical weapons destruction plan, two officials said. ...
The U.S. unit, built by the ECBC and the government's Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), is operated by a crew of 15. It can destroy up to 25 metric tons of chemical agents per day when run around the clock, according to Edgewood. Several units could be co-located onsite, enabling the sharing of security and other assets, it said.
We think Syria has a thousand tons of chemical weapons and the raw materials to make chemical weapons. Running at full blast, that unit could destroy that stockpile in 40 days. That would ruin Assad's day.
And this is one case where I wouldn't care about verification. Assad could hide some stuff or he could build more chemical weapons. Since the chemical weapons aren't that much of a threat in my opinion, why drag this on to get every last drop? Call it victory, clear the decks, and make Assad worry we'll intervene while we arm the rebels.
We're stuck in Syria. But we can shorten the time we're stuck there, it seems.
