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NYT: Obama retreating on “red line” for Syrian chemical weapons
Hotair ^

Posted on 12/07/2012 6:19:30 PM PST by chessplayer

In the summer of 2012, Barack Obama talked tough about “red lines” for Syria and the regime’s chemical weapons. In a rare press conference on August 20th, the President warned Bashar Assad that the US was prepared to act if Assad began to move his chemical weapons as a precursor to their use, emphasis mine:

obama-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.

Almost four months later, the New York Times reports that the equation has changed, all right … but not in the direction Obama threatened. Instead, the “red line” has moved backwards, apparently to negate the threat of military action before the use of chemical weapons by Assad in the Syrian civil war:

When President Obama first warned Syria’s leader, President Bashar al-Assad, that even making moves toward using chemical weapons would cross a “red line” that might force the United States to drop its reluctance to intervene in the country’s civil war, Mr. Obama took an expansive view of where he drew that boundary.

“We cannot have a situation where chemical or biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people,” he said at an Aug. 20 news conference. He added: “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.”

But in the past week, amid intelligence reports that some precursor chemicals have been mixed for possible use as weapons, Mr. Obama’s “red line” appears to have shifted. His warning against “moving” weapons has disappeared from his public pronouncements, as well as those of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The new warning is that if Mr. Assad makes use of those weapons, presumably against his own people or his neighbors, he will face unspecified consequences.

When the White House was asked about this significant change, they claimed that there was no change. They offered a Clintonian explanation instead:

The White House says the president has not changed his position at all — it is all in the definition of the word “moving.”

Tommy Vietor, the spokesman for the National Security Council, said Thursday that “ ‘moving around’ means proliferation,” as in allowing extremist groups like Hezbollah, which has training camps near the weapons sites, to obtain the material.

The NYT’s sources admit that Obama overshot the mark in August, though, and had to retreat on his “red line”:

But for Mr. Obama, the change in wording reflects the difficult politics and logistics of acting pre-emptively against Mr. Assad. No American president has talked more about the need to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction, and to lock down existing stockpiles.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: chemicalweapons; obama; syria
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1 posted on 12/07/2012 6:19:34 PM PST by chessplayer
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To: chessplayer

Predictable.


2 posted on 12/07/2012 6:22:49 PM PST by doc1019 (Women have a choice, unborn babies don't.)
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To: chessplayer

This is going to end very, very badly.


3 posted on 12/07/2012 6:24:51 PM PST by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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To: chessplayer

Appeaser.


4 posted on 12/07/2012 6:38:24 PM PST by what's up
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To: chessplayer
Welcome To Planet Progresso where Red Lines are not actually lines at all. They are sins of omission.

White Phosphorous and Red Lines

5 posted on 12/07/2012 6:44:18 PM PST by justa-hairyape
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To: chessplayer

“NYT: Obama retreating on “red line” for Syrian chemical weapons”

But there is NO WAY he will retreat on raising taxes for “the rich” making $200,000 a year!

Is there anything else you need to know that we have elected the enemy?


6 posted on 12/07/2012 6:49:05 PM PST by Castigar
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To: chessplayer
Oh Freekin Jeez: Are these the SAME WMD that the Bahgdad Bob's of the American Press said: DIDN'T EXIST??? BUSH LIED, PEOPLE DIED. When Syria lets loose with these things that SADAM HUSSAIN GAVE THEM, no one, No One will remember that Bush tried hard to contain them. No, Hissy Chrissy, Thrill up the Leg cause a black man is in office, will try to pin this on other people. Hey Hissy, the Dead are on your SOUL.





John Boehner AKA "The No Nutz Putz"

7 posted on 12/07/2012 6:54:40 PM PST by ConradofMontferrat (According to mudslimz, my handle is a HATE CRIME. And I HOPE they don't like it.)
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To: ConradofMontferrat

At the very least, there was equipment moved from Iraq to Syria via a Russian convoy. So the Syrians could have modernized their 40 year old chemical and biological capability with Saddam’s toys.


8 posted on 12/07/2012 7:00:03 PM PST by justa-hairyape
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To: chessplayer

As Cheney said last night..our allies no longer trust us and our enemies Niger fear us. FUBO.


9 posted on 12/07/2012 7:02:41 PM PST by SueRae (It isn't over. In God We Trust.)
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To: SueRae

Niger =no longer...damm iPad autofill


10 posted on 12/07/2012 7:04:17 PM PST by SueRae (It isn't over. In God We Trust.)
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To: SueRae

Niger =no longer...damm iPad autofill


11 posted on 12/07/2012 7:04:58 PM PST by SueRae (It isn't over. In God We Trust.)
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To: chessplayer

With the exception of the state of Israel and a small minority of modern Arab thinkers, that region is chock full of crazy people. You can’t fix stupid. You just have to let it sort itself out through natural selection.


12 posted on 12/07/2012 7:09:13 PM PST by 3Fingas (Sons and Daughters of Freedom, Committee of Correspondence)
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To: chessplayer

probably send the fbi to arrest him for an epa violation.


13 posted on 12/07/2012 7:32:14 PM PST by 1st Division guy
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To: chessplayer

Hey Obama,

**WHO in the hell gave the damn order to NOT rescue our men in Benghazi?**


14 posted on 12/07/2012 7:36:20 PM PST by Gator113 (**WHO in the hell gave the damn order to NOT rescue our men in Benghazi?**)
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To: chessplayer

Obama’s red line is no longer red...its yellow.


15 posted on 12/07/2012 7:53:58 PM PST by moovova
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To: ConradofMontferrat

....................Are these the SAME WMD that the Bahgdad Bob’s of the American Press said: DIDN’T EXIST???.............

Most probably! Remember Colon Powell’s presentation of infra-red nighttime photos of convoys leaving Iraq for Syria, at the UN. Remember the world’s aggreement that Saddam had bad shit, had used them on his own population, and had removed them.

Those were a few years ago when our admin had a set of balls: Today we have pansy ass Zer0, stupid and always drunk Plugs, and wide load Hitlery who has no clue on what to do.

Remember how our left blamed Cheney and Bush.

Now, think about the probable soon to be announced Assad message that every Syrian gov’t jet and helocopter has breakable bottles of Sarin onboard, so if you want to try to shoot it down you do so at the peril of unleashing death to all in a 100 mile radius.

Call Zer0 on the hot line under his desk, so Valerie Jarrett can make a decision.


16 posted on 12/07/2012 8:06:23 PM PST by Noob1999 (Loose Lips, Sink Ships)
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To: moovova

And up his back. Hard for him to see it, given where his head is - one of my friends call it a cranial rectal inversion.


17 posted on 12/07/2012 8:09:55 PM PST by Wicket (God bless and protect our troops and God bless America)
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To: doc1019

Does anyone believe anything that Obama says? The guy is a wet rag, little, twit.


18 posted on 12/07/2012 8:14:38 PM PST by NowApproachingMidnight (Civilizations die from suicide, not murder.)
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To: NowApproachingMidnight

Be nice in how you address your next supreme leader for life. He will literally hold your life in his hands.

As for me I say FUBO!!!

At my age, I’m already on his hit list. LOL!


19 posted on 12/07/2012 8:33:25 PM PST by doc1019
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To: Lurker

Right. Probably by Hitlery getting thousands more American troops killed or maimed.


20 posted on 12/07/2012 8:46:51 PM PST by pankot
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