Obama administration’s focus on Syria

The rise of ISIS militants in Syria and Iraq, and the unwillingness of Americans to see their military involved in another foreign conflict, appear to have cooled President Obama’s once-strident rhetoric demanding Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “must go” — even as the death toll in the three-year-old civil war tops 170,000.

 

“Syria is a mess and Assad has managed to hold onto power,” Chris Preble, Cato Institute’s vice president for foreign policy studies, told FoxNews.com.

 

“I’m not convinced that President Obama gave up on the idea” of forcing Assad from power, Preble said. “He just realized how unpopular it was,” adding, “America has very limited ability to affect the outcome in Syria.”

Read More: Assad must go? Obama administration’s focus on Syria in doubt as death toll soars | Fox News.