Bomb Fanatics Press
Obama to Exercise Custer-like Leadership
By William Boardman -- Reader Supported News
Obama's Choice: Bend Under
Pressure, or Act Presidential
The President finds himself pressured on one side by his own rookie mistake on August 20, 2012, when he said at a press conference, in answer to a question about the civil war in Syria, "We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus. That would change my equation."
To judge from the wording of his answer, the President seems to have been trying not to box himself it. He not only failed then, he has failed since to roll back political and media baiting over his supposed "red line," giving it more symbolic authority each time. Now he's caught in his own trap.
After several real or apparent earlier uses of some chemical weapons by somebody in Syria, the most recent alleged chemical weapons attack has some Washington officials reacting hysterically on the basis of limited uncertain information that, they argue, is sufficient basis for the United States to launch a limited but certain military attack on somebody.
Gas Over Syria Mostly
Smoke Blown by Politicians With Hidden Agendas
With his Secretary of State ranting in high-pitched tones about this "moral obscenity" and that "cowardly crime" committed by the Assad regime, the President seems weak and vacillating. The lawyer who is president might remind the lawyer who is secretary of state, that evidence usually precedes judgment, not only in court but also in the process of mature statecraft.
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