In 2012, President Barack Obama said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons against his own people would be a “red line” that would cause the U.S. to interfere militarily in the ongoing crisis in the country. But even after evidence emerged that Assad had used sarin gas against civilians, Obama declined to order airstrikes. Russia became involved in the Syrian civil war the next year, initiating airstrikes in support of Assad. Longtime anti-Soviet dissident, Israeli politician and human rights activist Natan Sharansky argued in a March 30 interview with the PBS NewsHour that Putin felt emboldened by the U.S.’ failure to respond militarily to Assad, and that President Joe Biden should be more forceful now, in his rhetoric, in warning Putin against a chemical weapons attack against Ukraine – and that he should be prepared to back it up with action.
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