Statecraft as malpractice

Jewish World Review ^ | 5/7/2013 | Rich Lowry

[Former Fetus]

Someone had to take the fall for President Barack Obama thoughtlessly drawing a "red line" threatening serious consequences if Syria used chemical weapons. It turns out that it is the president himself.

Senior officials explained to The New York Times that last August, the president's advisers had no idea he was going to boldly issue a red-line warning. The president was "unscripted," according to one official. In this perilously untelepromptered state, he accidentally made a statement that sounded like it was fraught with foreboding.

"We have been very clear to the Assad regime," the president said, "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." The phrase "red line" is a term of art usually denoting the trigger for the use of force.

We are now told by the officials that the red line was merely a gaffe, although evidently a serial gaffe. In March, Vice President Joe Biden said, "We've set a clear red line against the use [or] the transfer of those weapons." A couple of weeks later, the president drew the red line again. "We will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons," he said, adding, "The world is watching; we will hold you accountable."

With intelligence indicating that chemical weapons were used in Syria, the president has been crab-walking away from his formerly stalwart stance. Trying to contort himself out of a falsehood in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Bill Clinton infamously insisted, "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is." For Obama, it depends on the meaning of "red," "line" and "accountable."

[Former Fetus]

White House spokesman Jay Carney insists that the president meant exactly what he said. He just didn't say anything. "What he never did and it is simplistic to do so is to say, 'If X happens, Y will happen," Carney explained.

Oh, well, that makes me feel soooo much better... /s

[yldstrk]

Helloooooooooooooooooooo

It was the rebels who used chem weapons..............

[illiac]

“That would change my calculus”

This is a term that zero uses that just makes him look more like a fool...probably never took calculus anyway.....

[Diogenesis]

Chemical WMD have been ONLY used by McCain’s
and Obama’s people in Syria to whom they’ve given
MANPADs, and who include al Qaeda who
already committed atrocity attacks
against the WTC and the Pentagon.

[Cheerio]

[Former Fetus]

It was the rebels who used chem weapons..............

That's according to the UN, right? Ok, it is probably true, but it does not mean they are THE ONLY ONES who used chem weapons, does it?

Besides, what did Obama say? "We have been very clear to the Assad regime," the president said, "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".