John Kerry

Had we based our strategy last winter on what was happening on the ground in Syria, we would have had much better visibility...

Our ability to advance these goals will tend to be in direct proportion to the help the United States provides the opposition.

It is time, I think, to address them at the highest levels, and I think more can be done by the President with President Putin to try to find a way forward that starts with agreeing that Assad has to go.

We cannot appear to be feckless or impotent or ineffective in the face of this kind of use of force by anybody against their own people.

I do believe, however, that the United States should up its assistance to the rebels.

Things are likely to get a lot worse before they get any better, and the human suffering, therefore, is likely only to increase, perhaps dramatically.

I do believe the time has come to shift our emphasis at the same time to other multilateral vehicles and not just have all our eggs in one basket with respect to Russia.

A negotiated political transition remains Syria's best chance to avoid a further descent into chaos.

Most observers, most people analyzing the situation and seeing increasing defections, increasing violence, increasing capacity by the opposition, as well as other indicators, draw the conclusion that the days are numbered.

Before Syria achieves its slow motion revolution, it seems set to suffer, as Chairman Kerry outlined, a slow motion massacre.

It would, for instance, be a great mistake to allow the emerging leadership of Syria to conclude that al-Qaeda had done more to help them prevail than did the United States.

It is an urgent priority to make the Alawite community in particular feel that there is an alternative to the scenario that seems most likely to unfold if we do not find a way to stop the descent into chaos.

If we continue on our current path, it is more likely that they will be angry that the United States stood by and did far less than it could have to accelerate Assad's demise.

If they are worried, as I think they are, about chaos on their southern borders, the rise of Islamic extremists that can have an influence on their own Muslim populations, then sticking with Assad is the surest way possible of guaranteeing…

The faster it were to change and the more orderly it were to change, the less prospect there is for the kind of disruption.

We know that Bashar al-Assad and his supporters are steadily losing their grip.

We cannot allow negotiations in the Security Council to block the provision of vital support to the opposition.

That is something that ought to weigh heavily, I think, on our Russian friends because I believe they have the greatest ability to be the game-changers here.

The international community, with American leadership and support, must continue to help the opposition both in ending Assad's reign of terror and in preparing for what comes next after he is gone.

Every American heart feels for the families of those killed in last week's vicious and cowardly murder of five innocent Israelis and a local bus driver in Bulgaria.

The United States is committed to the security of Israel and to that of our Bulgarian partners.

This terrorist attack was an act of hate, and it should stiffen the spines of free people everywhere.

It would essentially make broadcast channels just like any other cable channel.

It would do nothing to resolve this question of negotiating stalemates.

I would not personally support a radical proposal to eliminate a retransmission consent right or must-carry requirements altogether.