Obama admits failure on Syria: ‘At least we tried’
Former President Obama struggled during a panel conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, admitting that the two leaders were unsuccessful in stopping the conflict, “despite our best efforts.”
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At one point the President said that “As president I didn’t always have the tools I wanted to affect those changes, but at least we tried,” he said, referring to the conflict in Syria.
Check out the video clip below.
He didn’t elaborate on the “tools” he didn’t have since war in Syria was never a controversial topic and dealing with Assad has always been popular with the American people.
Obama attempted to assure the audience that the atrocities in Syria “have haunted me since we first started seeing the civil war break out.”
Earlier this month, however, Obama said that not bombing Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad after he used chemical weapons on his own citizens “required the most political courage.”
He said that it was important to reduce the conflicts that were causing millions of refugees to flee their countries.
Pointing to the religious divisions between Sunni and Shia Muslims, Obama urged young people to drop their differences and work for peace.
“This is not simply something that we from the outside alone can solve,” he said.
But he specifically pointed out that religious violence was not unique to the Muslim faith.
“On this continent within the Christian religion there was a whole lot of conflict for a long time as well, this is part of our Original Sin it appears,” he said.
Cartoon by Carlos Latuff 2011 wikimedia commons
