retaliation on the part of hezbollah striking either at the israelis or american interests, either in the middle east or around the globe. remember, hezbollah was once described as the a-team of international terrorism and truly does have a global reach. so i think that, you know, assad s interview this morning was a lot of bluster. but there are certain consequences of an american military action that certainly should be given consideration. okay. laura, you, i know, will be interviewing the secretary of state tomorrow. here s what mr. kerry said in london earlier today. take a listen to this. a very limited, very targeted, very short-term effort that degrades his capacity to deliver chemical weapons. without assuming responsibility for syria s civil war. that is exactly what we re talking about doing. unbelievably small, limited kind of effort.
the invasion of iraq i think is still with us and lingers. it s overwhelming. it is overwhelming and the fact that case was so flawed, so false, and the american people have become so cynical about any case for war in that region or case for action, because this is not iraq. let s be honest. this is a lot more like the case like kosovo in the 1990s than iraq. however, the distorting effect of iraq and the dampening effect it s had on americans since adventurism and not want to go get involved in these conflicts is overwhelming. and i think this was always going to be a hard sell. as was kosovo, by the way. indeed. john, even the coalition of those in favor of strikes appears to be fraying a little bit. john kerry today said the strikes would be an unbelievably small, limited kind of effort, his words. and comes senator john mccain comes out and didn t like that characterization. he tweeted, kerry says syria s strike would be unbelievably small. that is unbelievably unhelpful.
need for strikes, secretary kerry also laid out the one way assad could avoid such an attack. is there anything at this point that his government could do or offer that would stop an attack? . sure. he could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week. turn it over. all of it. that statement, which the state department later described as, quote, rhetorical, may have had some kind of impact. because it was just a short time later that the russian foreign minister announced that he has asked the syrian president to put all of his nation s chemical weapons under international control so that they could be destroyed. it s a plan kerry s predecessor, hillary clinton, just a short time ago indicated could be a way forward. noting that to do nothing in response to this attack would be the worst possible reaction.
bon jour, everyone. don t worry. everything is bold. [ speaking in french ] it helps, of course, if kerry speaks good french, i guess. the president is taking his case directly to the american public over the next couple days. i just wish the president had laid this out better. series of interviews with the networks, a speech to the nation. he s going to be talking to members of congress. i wish he was more of a commander in chief than community organizer. how worried are they? very worried. this is an uphill climb. if you look at this public relations campaign that s gone on over the last 48 hours nobody is rebutting the intelligence. nobody doubts the intelligence. denis mcdonough doing what he did yesterday. president obama s chief of staff, dennis mcdonough, appeared on all five sunday news shows. obama s presidency hangs in the balance. his second term. the president doing all these interviews today. this afternoon, president obama will appear in
the broader conflict in syria is a threat to regional stability and security of our allies and partners. as well as a humanitarian catastrophe. and let s get right to our panel now. joy reid is with me, editor of the grio.com and msnbc political analyst. and john harwood who covers washington for cnbc and the new york times. john, can you tell us about this deal that the russians are proposing? is it serious, or do you think it sounds like something that was cooked up between messrs. assad and putin over the course of the last 24 hours? very hard to sort that out. and it s also hard to sort out, martin, whether or not secretary kerry s remarks were orchestrated or accidental. certainly given the administration s performance over the next couple weeks, you could see him stumbling into that by accident.