Posted on 05/05/2013 7:09:45 AM PDT by kristinn
Confronted with evidence that chemical weapons have been used in Syria, President Obama now finds himself in a geopolitical box, his credibility at stake with frustratingly few good options.
The origins of this dilemma can be traced in large part to a weekend last August, when alarming intelligence reports suggested the besieged Syrian government might be preparing to use chemical weapons. After months of keeping a distance from the conflict, Mr. Obama felt he had to become more directly engaged.
In a frenetic series of meetings, the White House devised a 48-hour plan to deter President Bashar al-Assad of Syria by using intermediaries like Russia and Iran to send a message that one official summarized as, Are you crazy? But when Mr. Obama emerged to issue the public version of the warning, he went further than many aides realized he would.
Moving or using large quantities of chemical weapons would cross a red line and change my calculus, the president declared in response to a question at a news conference, to the surprise of some of the advisers who had attended the weekend meetings and wondered where the red line came from. With such an evocative phrase, the president had defined his policy in a way some advisers wish they could take back.
The idea was to put a chill into the Assad regime without actually trapping the president into any predetermined action, said one senior official, who, like others, discussed the internal debate on the condition of anonymity. But what the president said in August was unscripted, another official said. Mr. Obama was thinking of a chemical attack that would cause mass fatalities, not relatively small-scale episodes like those now being investigated, except the nuance got completely dropped.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Now back to our continuing coverage of the stupidity of George Bush.
John Bolton was just on FOX talking about this. Says NYT is O’s megaphone, and that Obama is an embarrassment and s/h learned 4 years ago not to make “off the cuff” remarks.
There.
Fixed it.
For some inexplicable reason, the Wee Wee gets into trouble every time he wanders away from his teleprompter.
I get it now. He thinks that a “chemical attack that would cause mass fatalities” would be bad; and a “relatively small-scale episode” would be not so bad.
So please define “small-scale” and “mass.” Sounds like we’re about to hear another parsing of “is.”
What credibility? The Kenyan Clown has no credibility. Of any kind.
Hate it when that happens. But, it was a long time ago...
You mean he put his own bony ass in a bind.
True, our brave young men (and now, women) will have to put their lives on the line for this self-aggrandizing loose-lipped rectum but he's the one who put us in that situation.
What an asshole.
His handlers ought to arrange for him to walk around with a piece of toilet paper stuck to his heel so that he could just look down and read what’s there any time he’s off Teleprompter.
Small scale= one abortion at a time
Large scale= Sandy Hook
LOLOLOLOLOL.
I’m wondering WHO puts the info on the teleprompter, it damn sure isn’t him. Probably Valerie Ferret
If it’s not on the teleprompter it shouldn’t count. It’s racist to think otherwise.
just trying to talk like the Big Boys
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