The majority of the more than 300 chemical weapons attacks linked to the Syrian government since 2012 on its own people occurred after former President Barack Obama's "red line" declaration, a new report claims.
On Aug. 20, 2012, Obama said if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad attacked the country's civilians with chemical weapons, that would cross a "red line."
"That would change my calculus. That would change my equation," Obama said.
The Washington Post, however, cited a report from the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPI) that concluded most of the 336 documented chemical attacks against the Syrian people happened after Obama's warning — which has been mocked by Republicans for years because Obama did not take military action against Syria.
The report also found that 98 percent of the attacks, which involved nerve agents and chlorine bombs, can be linked to either the Syrian military or forces aligned with it. A group called the Tiger Forces, which has ties to Russia, is among those groups.
Obama was in office from 2009-2017 and never followed through with his threat against Syria. He spoke about it in 2017, saying it took "political courage" not to use military force against Assad's forces.
"I actually think that the issue that required the most political courage was the decision not to bomb Syria after the chemical weapons use had been publicized and rather to negotiate them removing chemical weapons from Syria," Obama said.
President Donald Trump, on the other hand, has ordered military strikes against Syrian targets twice in response to reported chemical attacks carried out by the government. The last such strike was in April 2018.
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