For Bashar Al-Assad, Crossing Obama's Red Line Was a Win-Win
Poison Gas Victory
Assad's international standing has improved, not despite his having used chemical weapons against the Syrian people, but precisely because he did, says Anna Momigliano.
A convoy of United Nations (UN) vehicles leave a hotel in Damascus on August 26, 2013 carrying UN inspectors travelling to the site of a suspected deadly chemical weapon attack the previous week in Ghouta, east of the capital. (STR / AFP / Getty Images)
One year ago, Bashar al-Assad was a pariah in the international community. A political solution to the Syrian crisis that included his government seemed inconceivable, at least to the Western world.
