Obama: It's Not My Red Line Or Credibility At Stake In Syria, It's Congress' And The World's

TFG.

[Breaking news update, 9:25 a.m. ET] "My credibility is not on the line -- the international community's credibility is on the line," President Barack Obama said Wednesday in Sweden regarding his desire for a military strike in response to a suspected August chemical attack in Syria. He said the question is, after going through all the evidence: "Are we going to try to find a reason not to act? And if that's the case, then I think the (world) community should admit it."

[Breaking news update, 9:14 a.m. ET]
President Barack Obama said Wednesday the "red line" he previously spoke of regarding the use of chemical weapons in Syria wasn't his own, but the world's. "I didn't set a red line. The world set a red line. The world set a red line when governments representing 98%" of the world's population "passed a treaty forbidding (chemical weapons) use, even when countries are engaged in war," Obama said in Sweden.

It's not in that running update but Obama also said it's "Congress' credibility on the line" because they passed the Syrian Accountability Act...back in 2003 and the ban on chemical weapons a year or two before that.

So what did Obama actually say in announcing his, er, a red line?

“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,” the president said a year ago last week. “That would change my calculus. That would change my equation.”

Hmmm....not mentioned: "The World" or Congress.

Even David Gergen wasn't buying that. He pointed out that passing those things didn't commit the US to war, they committed the US to do something that they'd figure out latter if push came to shove which it has.

I would have loved to have seen Kerry and Hagel run this, "Hey, it's not the President's credibility on the line, it's yours. We're just trying to help you" gambit yesterday at the Senate Foreign Relations Committie. That might have been interesting.

It's absolutely amazing how little responsibility Obama takes. The only way he can even remotely get away with this nonsense is that he has a willing set of accomplices in the media.

Added: Rick Wilson has some political advice for the GOP on Syria...Run Away.

You're going give Obama cover after two years of Syrian civil war, a growing threat to Israel, a nuclear Iran closer than ever, and Egypt and Libya in chaos...all of which has been met with a shrug and “at this point what difference does it make?” nonchalance?

As in practically everything but campaigning, Barack Obama's zone of competence in foreign policy is so far in the rearview mirror it's almost comical...and now he wants the GOP to save him from himself.

He's being played by sand-trap dictators, Al Qaeda's bankers and Russian bad boys like some rube just fallen off the pumpkin truck...but please, go ahead and join him.

By all means, become a stakeholder in an ill-planned Administration policy with almost no possible good outcomes for the United States.

While you're at it, reward Obama and the Democrats' brazen, utterly shameless hypocrisy over war and Presidential power as if the last 10 years didn't happen.

You're going to get the stink of his failures and incompetence all over you? Fabulous. Apparently, they don't call us the stupid party for nothing.

posted by DrewM. at 10:10 AM

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