Posted on 09/03/2013 6:59:24 AM PDT by SJackson
In Syria, Iran and Lebanon, the president’s decision to seek Congressional approval for a military strike is recognized as proof of weakness and hesitancy. In Jerusalem, too
Bashar Assad can relax. Barack Obama blinked, and entrusted the decision on whether to attack Syria to Congress.
It may be that this was a necessary step from Obama’s point of view. It may be that it was a wise decision politically, in an America traumatized by Iraq and Afghanistan. But the smiles on the faces of decision-makers in Syria, Lebanon and Iran, on hearing Obama’s Saturday speech, tell their own story.
Until Saturday, Obama’s Middle East policies were generally regarded by the Arab world as confused and incoherent. As of Saturday, he will be perceived as one of the weakest presidents in American history.
That scent of weakness has emphatically reached Iran. Amir Mousavi, the head of Tehran’s Center for Strategic Defense Studies, told Al-Jazeera in the immediate wake of the speech that Obama is uncertain and hesitant. At around the same time, Revolutionary Guards commander Mohammad Ali Jafari boasted that “the United States is mistaken if it thinks that the reaction to a strike on Syria will be limited to Syrian territory.” This was likely part of an effort to deter members of Congress from supporting military intervention against the Assad regime for its use of chemical weapons. In an act of solidarity, meanwhile, an Iranian parliamentary delegation, led by Alaeddin Boroujerdi, who heads the Security and Foreign Policy Committee and is close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, is currently on a visit to Damascus.
Drawing the connection between Syria and Iran is unavoidable. If after Assad’s use of weapons of mass destruction to kill what Secretary of State John Kerry specified were 1,429 of his own people, Obama hesitates — when Assad has no real capacity to substantially harm American interests — what is he likely to do if Iran decides to develop nuclear weapons? Khamenei and his advisers recognize that the likelihood of this administration using military force against a country with Iran’s military capability are very low, if not nonexistent.
And they’re not the only ones who realize this. The same conclusions are being drawn by Hezbollah and al-Qaeda.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet colleagues, who will doubtless have been watching the Rose Garden speech, will have internalized what they had long suspected: that Washington will not be the place from which good news will emanate about thwarting Iran’s nuclear drive.
Meantime, Syria now returns to the routine of civil war. The Syrian army is fighting bitter battles against rebel forces across the country, and Assad is utilizing his air force to bomb residential neighborhoods — not, heaven forbid, with chemical weapons, merely with conventional weaponry.
It is clear to the Assad regime that an American response will ultimately come. But it will be limited and weak — of a scale that will enable Bashar Assad not merely to survive, but to hail victory.
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The issue isn't whether or not we intervene in Syria, that decision was made. Rather that the administration drew a red line, advocated an attack of some kind, then appears at best to be looking for a way of of a mistake, at worst (and likely) playing politics with national security. America has little credibility under this President.
This whole wag the dog show is to show the American people that the evil Republicans in congress do not care about the down trodden, but only rich dictators.
Basically, Obama is once again projecting.
Netanyahu may decide that being alone means acting alone.
The Iranians have to import their gasoline. Are they stupid enough to make things even worse, or is it Twelfth Mahdi time for them?
Obama “Blinked” because Putin told his ships in the Med to “Prepare for a serious confrontation” in the Med, with the United States on Friday.
I would have LOVED to listen in on that phone call to Obama!!
Has anyone heard any of those uncomfortable words that were current in the last couple of years? like Benghazi? or Gunwalking? or Surveillance? The kenyan has cleaned his very messy slate.
King James Version (KJV)
13 Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord God.
14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.
15 And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man's bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamongog.
They are not alone, and they will never be alone.
Bibi may feel he is alone but he isn’t. I hope he understands that.
Jimmy Carter made a big mistake in capitulating to Iran back in 1979 with thee embassy hostage taking and throwing the shah under the bus. Instead of Iran being an ally, is has become a dangerous enemy over time !
Aside from his muzzy bros, hussein is all alone, too.
“Until Saturday, Obama’s Middle East policies were generally regarded by the Arab world as confused and incoherent. As of Saturday, he will be perceived as one of the weakest presidents in American history.”
How would a narcissist in the Oval Office respond, besides putting his foot on the desk and looking at his reflection in the window?
But throwing a couple of missiles at Syria will give him back the credibility he so cavalierly threw overboard. “Duh, I said something dumb. Now we gotta kill somebody.”
Don't forget he's a Chicago street thug...knife/gun thingy... He has no idea how world leaders fight nor how they communicate...if he did things would not be as they are in the ME.
No plan...no strategy...it's so very clear he's making things up as he goes along....so much so the military leaders can't respond coherently when asked questions by congress.
On the other hand, surviving “the best” the Great Satan has to offer will boost Assad’s.
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