Elliott Abrams Quotes

Unless there is meaningful change in Syria and an end to the crackdown, President Assad and those around him will find themselves isolated internationally and discredited within Syria.

Here's the problem - under both Obama and Trump, American military forces and assistance have provided just enough support to anti-Assad forces to keep the resistance going, but never enough help to actually dislodge Assad from power.

Obama has refused to equip, or to arm, any rebel groups fighting Assad or his forces.

Many governments are quick to condemn Assad, but a dwindling number of them would celebrate a rebel victory in Damascus.

It is always an eerie experience to sit among Bashar al-Assad's soldiers.

There is no question that President Barack Obama should be commended for the successful removal of Assad's ghastly chemical weapons stockpile. But it hasn't been enough.

We don't see a peaceful Syria with Assad in there.

If Assad continues to conduct strikes against the Free Syrian Army at will, it would be very difficult for them to have any success against ISIS.

Back in August 2013, when Obama entertained the White House press corps in the Rose Garden to explain that he wasn't quite as eager to upbraid Bashar Assad as he might have inadvertently led them earlier to believe, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees counted about two million Syrians in its refugee statistics.

Israel lost its war. Will Assad's enemies lose, too?

I don't know that anybody has walked up to me in the street or in a store or in the grocery and said to me, 'I hope you bomb Assad.' Certainly plenty have said, 'No; thumbs down, thumbs down, thumbs down.'

The regime of Bashar al-Assad will inevitably go down. And its collapse will be loud not only in Syria but across the Arab world.

What the United States needs to do at this point is reaffirm our commitment that Assad must go and that Iran and Russia cannot be granted a sphere of influence in Syria, and that we will not sit down at the negotiating table to help broker Assad's victory in this fight.

Iran has basically propped up Assad, who has waged an absolute war of horror against the Syrian people. And he has done anything he could to stay in power with the full support of the Iranians and including Iranian troops and Hezbollah from Lebanon, which are an Iranian proxy.

It's difficult to see how Syria can have any long-term future with Assad there as president. Many people would never return to that country if that were the case.

In August 2012, the international community should have been far more determined in dealing with the Bashar Assad regime.

In 2012, General Dempsey, General Petraeus directed the CIA, Secretary Panetta and Secretary Clinton recommended to the president to robustly arm and train the Syrian moderates. He says no. In 2013, conduct a military strike, same national security team, against the Assad regime because he violated the chemical red line. He says no.

One sure way to ruin American credibility in the Arab world is to sit silently in Damascus and look like you're part of the Assad show.

The U.S. would still like to see Assad go at some point. That would be our desired outcome.

Even when you just hear the word 'Syria,' it packs a lot of political connotations.

The Assad regime is quite reliant on oil exports.

The fall of the Syrian regime is in the interest of America and Israel.

President Bashar Assad's regime is in the unique position of being targeted both by Israel and supporters of al Qaeda.

A majority of the Syrian people believe in the regime and support Bashar al-Assad.

As international support for Obama's decision to attack Syria has collapsed, along with the credibility of government claims, the administration has fallen back on a standard pretext for war crimes when all else fails: the credibility of the threats of the self-designated policeman of the world.