John Kerry actually said...

We have helped negotiate a truce in South Sudan and helped to pull that country back from the brink of civil war.

We are engaged in helping the French to quell the Boko Haram and other people in the region of Mali and elsewhere.

We have stated again and again that our preference and the preference of our friends and allies is de-escalation and a diplomatic solution.

I think there is a capacity to change Assad's calculation, and so does the President.