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Friday, January 31, 2014

Unbelievably Small Disarmament

Behold the big-brained, nuanced results thus far of John Kerry's diplomacy in Syria.

In the annual review, Secretary of State Kerry will put this down as a success:

Syria has given up less than five percent of its chemical weapons arsenal and will miss next week's deadline to send all toxic agents abroad for destruction, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The deliveries, in two shipments this month to the northern Syrian port of Latakia totaled 4.1 percent of the roughly 1433 metric tons of toxic agents reported by Damascus to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"It's not enough and there is no sign of more," one source briefed on the situation said.

Last summer, Assad bought time to defeat the rebels by agreeing to give up chemical weapons. Apparently, he needs more time.

Seriously, outside of the Obama administration, who is really surprised?