Opinion: The tragedy in Aleppo is not Obama’s fault

To the editor: Two letters deride President Obama for not going to war against Syrian leader Bashar Assad over the “red line” issue. (“Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have died needlessly. So much for ‘never again,’” Readers React, Dec. 17)

I think it’s important to remember that Americans were not in favor of sending troops into the Syrian mess at that time. The president decided to have Congress give him authorization for a military strike, and Congress whiffed on that.

So, what the president did was make a deal with Syria — which was gassing its own people — to remove more than 1,000 tons of lethal gas through a negotiated process. No shots were fired. Syria gave up the gas without being attacked by us or any allies, and Russia negotiated with us on that process.

It was a great example of using the threat of military power while negotiating and solving an issue without firing a shot.

Hopefully, the Trump administration will look back on this incident and see the power of diplomacy.

Larry Margo, Valley Village

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To the editor: I get the feeling that Obama’s critics blame him for not following through with his “red line” threat and would have preferred that we had taken military action. I too feel that the threat was bad policy, but not because he didn’t follow through, but rather because he made the threat in the first place.

Ron Garber, Duarte

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