Reuters quotes Rafik Hariri Center Resident Senior Fellow Frederic C. Hof on why President Barack Obama is taking less risks in the face of mounting foreign crises:
The quest for a diplomatic solution to Syria’s civil war also faces formidable obstacles, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who Obama said back in 2011 “must go,” looks all but certain to outlast him in office.
“This all adds up to attempted containment – getting through 2016 until it becomes someone else’s problem,” said Frederic Hof, a former State Department adviser on Syria during Obama’s first term and now at the Atlantic Council think tank.