{"id":6445,"date":"2013-09-04T14:10:29","date_gmt":"2013-09-04T21:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=6445"},"modified":"2013-09-10T14:14:33","modified_gmt":"2013-09-10T21:14:33","slug":"putin-puts-obama-in-hot-seat-what-will-you-do-if-rebels-are-ones-using-chemical-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/putin-puts-obama-in-hot-seat-what-will-you-do-if-rebels-are-ones-using-chemical-weapons\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin Puts Obama in Hot Seat: ‘What Will You Do If Rebels Are Ones Using Chemical Weapons?’"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0RaymondIbrahim.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Russian President Vladimir Putin has a strange way of speaking \"\"straightforwardly, without all the artificial and \u201cmorally superior\u201d airs one expects from Western politicians.<\/p>\n

Earlier, for example, he\u00a0wondered why Western leaders were supporting\u00a0cannibals<\/em>\u00a0in Syria<\/a>:<\/p>\n

You will not deny that one does not really need to support the people who not only kill their enemies, but open up their bodies, eat their intestines in front of the public and cameras. Are these the people you want to support? Is it them who you want to supply with weapons? Then this probably has little relation to humanitarian values that have been preached in Europe\u00a0for hundreds of years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Putin was referring to the notorious video of a jihadi leader biting into the organs of a Syrian soldier while screaming Islamic slogans.<\/p>\n

Now, the straightforward Russian has asked another equally important and straightforward question \u2014 the sort of question so full of common sense that most Western politicians never expect to hear a fellow politician asking (and, as usual, one the Western media have failed to report on, though\u00a0Arabic media is abuzz with it<\/a>).<\/p>\n

In a videotaped interview published today concerning U.S. attempts to go to war in Syria, not only did Putin criticize Secretary of State John Kerry\u2019s\u00a0\u00a0dissembling concerning the nature of the Syrian opposition<\/a>, but he also said:<\/p>\n

There is another question: if it turns out that the armed rebels are the ones who used weapons of mass destruction, what will the United States do with the armed rebels? \u00a0And what will it do with those sponsoring the rebels? Will they stop supplying them with arms? Will they start fighting against them?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed. \u00a0Considering that invading Syria is almost entirely being rationalized in the context of Assad violating the human rights of others, what will the U.S. \u2014 Obama, Kerry, McCain, et. al. \u2014 do if it turns out that the al-Qaeda led rebels are, in fact, the ones using such weapons, as\u00a0significant evidence<\/a>\u00a0already indicates?<\/p>\n

Probably what they are doing now: continue misleading Americans and go to war anyway, since \u2014 and once again \u2014\u00a0this has nothing to do with chemical weapons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Update<\/strong>: RT posted the video and translation of Putin\u2019s questions regarding what the U.S. would do if it turns out the rebels used chemical weapons (here<\/a>, around the four-minute mark).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0RaymondIbrahim.com   Russian President Vladimir Putin has a strange way of speaking straightforwardly, without all the artificial and \u201cmorally superior\u201d airs one expects from Western politicians. Earlier, for example, he\u00a0wondered why Western leaders were supporting\u00a0cannibals\u00a0in Syria: You will not deny that one does not really need to support the people who not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[127,227],"tags":[12,1062,1041,424,625,76],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1FX","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6541,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/russian-patriarch-to-obama-syrias-christians-nearing-extermination\/","url_meta":{"origin":6445,"position":0},"title":"Russian Patriarch to Obama: Syria’s Christians Nearing ‘Extermination’","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The leader of Russia's 150 million Orthodox Christians begs the president not to give aid to Syrian jihadis. by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0PJ Media\u00a0 While many were fixated on Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s recent letter to the American people, another letter from another Russian leader\u2014this one directly addressed to the U.S.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Russia"","block_context":{"text":"Russia","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/russia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6949,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/kerry-boasts-of-pluralistic-syria-once-assad-gone\/","url_meta":{"origin":6445,"position":1},"title":"Kerry Boasts of ‘Pluralistic’ Syria Once Assad Gone","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0RaymondIbrahim.com\u00a0 U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, was recently\u00a0interviewed\u00a0about Syria. \u00a0While many of his assertions can be debated, one especially requires a response. 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