Photo Gallery Rumsfeld Warns Obama about Putin
Putin welcomes Obama at the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg earlier this month. "We dont yet know the details or who would do the supervising, but my recollection is that the Soviets or the Russians gave Syria most of their weapons arsenal," Rumsfeld said. "And it is not clear to me that Russia itself has fully complied with all their obligations with respect to chemical weapons. Therefore, a question could be: Might it possibly amount to putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop?"
The situation in Syria continues to deteriorate, but it now looks as though there will be no immediate international response to the alleged use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar Assad.
There have been several protests in the US against American strikes in Syria. This one involved pro-Assad supporters marching in front of the White House on Sept. 9.
Obama returning to Washington from the G-20 earlier this month. In the immediate aftermath of the alleged chemical weapons attacks on Aug. 21, it appeared that the US was going to stage air strikes. "War is a terrible thing, but that is the reason why a leader should be careful about drawing red lines," Rumsfeld said.
Obama is in a bind, with many of Washington's allies abroad skeptical of military action in Syria and people in the states overwhelmingly opposed.
US President Barack Obama addressing the nation on Sept. 10. The US changed course and elected to join a Russia proposal that Syrian chemical weapons be placed under international control.
