Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haass sums up the Obama administration's Syria policy and handling of chemical weapons in an appearance on Monday's edition of Morning Joe.



"History is going to be rough on this," Haass said. "This going to be the defining moment for Obama presidency."





RICHARD HAASS, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: There was a sense that the Obama presidency was a bit of paralysis by analysis. And in some instances there was such a tight center, it was the president, Ben Rhodes and a few others who then afterwards tried to make a case that what they did was a solution to the chemical problem in Syria when everybody knows it wasn't. No, history is going to be rough on this. This going to be the defining moment for Obama presidency.



What is so interesting about it is it's going to be a moment of inaction, and it proves the point that what you don't do can matter every bit as much what you do when you govern. And I think all these people, one disagreed at the time, they were probably thinking about their futures, but essentially it showed also that President Obama was something of a departure from the Democratic foreign policy national security mainstream, which are tougher.