CHRISTIAN MONITOR
Obama feels heat from State Department to act in Syria
by Simone McCarthy
June 17, 2016

President Obama received a strong message of dissent from 51 State Department officials yesterday, who called for more heavy-handed action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has repeatedly violated internationally brokered cease-fire agreements during the country’s five-year civil war. The internal memo asks for a “hard-nosed US-led diplomatic process” in addition to more air strikes, according to The New York Times, who received a copy. This approach would force a diplomatic negotiation, the signers argue. So far, Obama has side-stepped from directly striking against Mr. Assad’s government, which has been responsible for the deaths of more Syrians than the Islamic State, according to widely cited data collected by the Syrian Network for Human Rights, a group working on the ground in Syria. READ MORE