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The Syrian Deal


“The United States and Russia agreed Saturday on an outline for the identification and seizure of Syrian chemical weapons and said Syria must turn over an accounting of its arsenal within a week.

“The agreement will be backed by a U.N. Security Council resolution that could allow for sanctions or other consequences if Syria fails to comply, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said.”

The speed with which all this is happening – and that as a result of a serendipitous statement that fell unbidden from the lips of Secretary of State John Kerry – is a little too unbelievable to be believed. One imagines that at some point in the distant future, some reporter or historian, rooting through deservedly forgotten documents and private communications, will discover that the whole US, Russian, Syrian “deal” was cooked up far in advance of the precipitating incidents.


Assuming prior negotiations between the parties, the only open question is: Who duped whom? 

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