President Obama Tells Town Meeting He’s Right on Syria

It’s a policy constantly being reassessed with input from leading experts, but not coming to the rescue of millions of Syrians, more than 300,000 of whom have died during the past five years of civil war, is an example of “bad things that are going to happen around the world,” according to President Barack Obama, “and we have to be judicious.” The matter of the Syrian slaughter was raised at the CNN town hall program, where the president explained his policy by saying, “in Syria, there is not a scenario in which, absent us deploying large numbers of troops, we can stop a civil war in which both sides are deeply dug in.” The United States has come under scathing criticism for sitting back during the five years of carnage that has seen 11 million people displaced from their homes. New calls for American intervention have been frequently sounded as the largest Syrian city, Aleppo, struggles under siege and its 250,000 remaining residents face an extreme humanitarian crisis. The Syrian and Russian air forces have been relentless in their bombing that has killed hundreds more in the past week, including the targeting of two hospitals. US Secretary of State John Kerry has threatened to end talks with Moscow, but has not suggested any measure that would allow US forces to help put an end to the horrific fighting. Meanwhile, Washington announced the US would send another 600 troops to Iraq to participate in operation to re-take the city of Mosul from the Islamic State.