By Mira Rapp-Hooper
Prior to President Obama’s decision to delay the Congressional vote on military intervention in Syria, top administration officials told Congress that a failure to punish Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons use would reverberate with allies in East Asia.
"North Korea is hoping for ambivalence from the Congress," Secretary of State John Kerry told the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week. Similarly, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel suggested that South Korea was gravely concerned about the North’s WMD capacity, and argued that the DPRK could be emboldened to use chemical weapons if the U.S. failed to uphold the norm of chemical weapons non-use.
With military action on “pause” as the administration evaluates the prospects of a chemical weapons handover by Assad, it is worth contemplating this question: If the United States fails to take punitive action against Syria for chemical weapons use, will allies (and South Korea in particular) doubt the United States’ commitment to defend them from the same?
Read the full story at The Diplomat