Did Bashar al-Assad's PR blitz pay off?

President Obama's decision to delay military action in favor of diplomacy comes in the wake of Syria's aggressive charm offensive

Bashar al-Assad
(Image credit: (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere))

President Obama is delaying military action against Syria, but not backing off of his determination to hold Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accountable for his regime's alleged gassing of its own people.

Still, the fact that Obama is talking about Assad — instead of raining bombs down on him — marks a pretty significant improvement in the embattled Middle Eastern leader's circumstances.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.