President Obama defended his administration's derided Syrian policy on This Week Sunday, claiming he was "less concerned about style points" than getting policy right.
He said that if his Syrian policy had been "smooth" and "disciplined," the Washington establishment would have graded it well. Though the deal struck over the weekend that would have Syria allow its chemical weapons stockpiles to be removed or destroyed in the next year was brokered by the Russians, Obama said the outcome "sounds to me like we did something right."
OBAMA: I think that folks here in Washington like to grade on style. And so had we rolled out something that was very smooth and disciplined and linear, they would have graded it well, even if it was a disastrous policy. We know that, because that’s exactly how they graded the Iraq War until it ended up blowing up in our face.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So this doesn’t change your view of President Bush.
OBAMA: No. What it says is that I’m less concerned about style points, I’m much more concerned about getting the policy right. And what I’ve said consistently throughout is that the chemical weapons issue is a problem. I want that problem dealt with. And as a consequence of the steps that we’ve taken over the last two weeks to three weeks, we now have a situation in which Syria has acknowledged it has chemical weapons, has said it’s willing to join the convention on chemical weapons, and Russia, its primary sponsor, has said that it will pressure Syria to reach that agreement. That’s my goal. And if that goal is achieved, then it sounds to me like we did something right.