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Syria – The Risk of Doing Nothing

Obama did not want to be dragged into another war in the Middle East, but when the Syrian regime began to consider the use of chemical weapons, he warned them they would be crossing a red line.

In his acceptance speech for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, President Obama stated: 'I believe that force can be justified on humanitarian grounds, as it was in the Balkans'. When the Arab Spring-driven demonstrations against the Syrian regime were brutally put down, Obama, stung by failure in Libya, did not want to be dragged into another war in the Middle East. But when the Syrian regime began to consider the use of chemical weapons, Obama warned they would be crossing a red line.

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