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Obama: You Can't Understand Syria Policy 'If You Haven't Been in the Situation Room'
Weekly Standard ^

Posted on 06/18/2013 6:01:10 AM PDT by Sub-Driver

Obama: You Can't Understand Syria Policy 'If You Haven't Been in the Situation Room'

Obama: I hear folks saying, "Katie, bar the door, let's just go in and knock out Syria." 7:03 AM, Jun 18, 2013 • By DANIEL HALPER

Charlie Rose last night asked President Obama his new Syria policy. The president first objected to it being called a new policy. "I'm not sure you can characterize this as a new policy. This is consistent with the policy that I've had throughout," he said.

Obama then explained the goal is regional stability, and especially in Syria. "Really, what we're trying to do is take sides against extremists of all sorts and in favor of people who are in favor of moderation, tolerance, representative government, and over the long-term, stability and prosperity for the people of Syria," said Obama.

And after a little back-and-forth, Rose said to Obama, "So you think a no fly zone is not necessary?"

Obama, the transcript suggests, seemed to think Rose wasn't getting it. "What I’m saying is, that if you haven’t been in the Situation Room, pouring through intelligence and meeting directly with our military folks and asking, what are all our options, and examining what are all the consequences, and understanding that for example, if you set up a no-fly zone, that you may not be actually solving the problem on the zone," he said. "Or if you set up a humanitarian corridor, are you in fact committed not only to stopping aircraft from going that corridor, but also missiles? And if so, does that mean that you then have to take out the armaments in Damascus and are you prepared then to bomb Damascus? And what happens if there’s civilian casualties. And have we mapped all of the chemical weapons facilities inside of Syria to make sure that we don’t drop a bomb on a chemical weapons facility that ends up then dispersing chemical weapons and killing civilians, which is exactly what we’re trying to prevent. Unless you’ve been involved in those conversations, then it’s kind of hard for you to understand that the complexity of the situation and how we have to not rush into one more war in the Middle East. And we've got --"

Rose then interrupted, "So that's why people think you haven't, because you do not want to get involved in another conflict, having extricated the United States from Iraq and also soon from Afghanistan."

"Charlie, I --" Obama tried, before being cut off again.

"And the idea of another conflict and getting involved in a war that had real significant Sunni-Shia implications and could explode into the region, you want no part of that, even though there has been a turn in the tide in Syria with the Assad regime and the Assad army, with the help of Hezbollah, doing better."

Obama explained, "Yeah, Charlie, that shouldn't just be my concern, that should be everybody's concern, you know. We went through that. We know what it's like to rush into a war in the Middle East without having thought it through. And there are elements within the Middle East who see this entirely through the prism of a Shia-Sunni conflict and want the United States to simply take the side of the Sunnis. And that I do not think serves American institutes. As I said before, the distinction I make is between extremists and those who are recognized in a 21st century world that the way the Middle East is going to succeed is when you have governments that meet the aspirations of their people, that are tolerant, that are not sectarian. And working through that is something that we have to do in deliberate fashion. So when I hear debates out there, on the one hand, folks saying, you know, 'Katie, bar the door, let's just go in and knock out Syria' --"

"They're not asking that," Rose conteded.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Israel; News/Current Events; Russia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: benghazi; christiangenocide; genocide; israel; obamaswar; russia; situationroom; syria; syriarebels; syriawar; threatmatrix; waronterror
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What profundity...............
1 posted on 06/18/2013 6:01:10 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
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To: Sub-Driver

Given Benghazi (and other situations), I thought this was SATIRE.


2 posted on 06/18/2013 6:03:50 AM PDT by txrangerette ("...hold to the truth; speak without fear". - Glenn Beck)
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To: Sub-Driver

how can a human being lie so energetically for so long?


3 posted on 06/18/2013 6:04:45 AM PDT by schm0e ("we are in the midst of a coup.")
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To: Sub-Driver

Right .... We’re arming the very terrorist organization that killed over 3,000 people on American soil on September 11th, 2001 and we’re all too stupid to understand Obama’s brilliant foreign policy.

I’m sorry but this asshole sitting in the White House simply enrages me to the point of physically vomiting.


4 posted on 06/18/2013 6:05:38 AM PDT by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: Sub-Driver
"I know better than you so shut up!"
Except when SHTF, then he knows nuthin' 'bout nuthin'.

5 posted on 06/18/2013 6:06:59 AM PDT by BitWielder1 (Corporate Profits are better than Government Waste)
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To: Sub-Driver

“Obama: You Can’t Understand Syria Policy ‘If You Haven’t Been in the Situation Room’”

Is that the same situation room that you supposedly didn’t go to during Benghazi?


6 posted on 06/18/2013 6:08:01 AM PDT by melsec (Once a Jolly Swagman camped by a Billabong.)
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To: Sub-Driver
Actually, he's right. The only problem with his statement is that President Obama spends so little time in the Situation Room.

I'll wager he's spent more time on the golf course over the past 4 1/2 years than he's spent on intelligence briefings.


7 posted on 06/18/2013 6:08:45 AM PDT by Night Hides Not (The Tea Party was the earthquake, and Chick Fil A the tsunami...100's of aftershocks to come.)
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To: Sub-Driver
We can't understand Libya and Egypt and Afghanistan (under Obama).....Hasan, the panty bomber, the Boston bombers.

We're not stupid.

Anyone remember any country aiding us during the Civil War??

8 posted on 06/18/2013 6:09:08 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: Sub-Driver
All he can do is pose and read from a TelePrompTer.
9 posted on 06/18/2013 6:09:12 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (People with religious faith in government are far crazier than people with religious faith in God.)
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To: schm0e
how can a human being lie so energetically for so long?

You do know Clinton is about 15 years older than he is, right?


10 posted on 06/18/2013 6:09:27 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Sub-Driver

Wow! History will portray Obama as the most clueless President in History. He has absolutely no desire to be a Leader. He’s only good at sound bytes and catchy phrases.
The time (if there ever was one) for intervention in Syria has passed. No one will follow President Obama into these fires because he has no credibility..


11 posted on 06/18/2013 6:09:44 AM PDT by griswold3 (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes)
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To: Sub-Driver

When was the last time he was in there?


12 posted on 06/18/2013 6:10:09 AM PDT by jersey117
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To: Sub-Driver
From the same man who didn't know when his loyal staff were targeting the Tea Party, or religious groups through the IRS.

The same man who didn't know that Fast and Furious was a plot to undermine the Second amendment...The list goes on on what Obama didn't know.

Why should we expect him to know anything about the situation in Syria?

13 posted on 06/18/2013 6:10:37 AM PDT by Bayard
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To: Sacajaweau
Anyone remember any country aiding us during the Civil War??

The Brits did quietly shuffle some aid to the Confederacy.


14 posted on 06/18/2013 6:10:40 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Sub-Driver

LOL. He really said that?


15 posted on 06/18/2013 6:10:46 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
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To: Sub-Driver

“And that I do not think serves American institutes.”

Wha.....????


16 posted on 06/18/2013 6:11:05 AM PDT by Migraine (Diversity is great -- until it happens to YOU...)
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To: Sub-Driver
You cannot understand al Qaeda OR Benghazi Hussein Obama
without thinking about THIS situation.

al Qaeda declared themselves the MORTAL Enemies of the American people
then, last year, last week, and this week.
So what is the reason precisely to arm them again (since the MANPADs)?


17 posted on 06/18/2013 6:13:12 AM PDT by Diogenesis
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To: Sub-Driver

Is that what we now call golf courses in DC - situation rooms?


18 posted on 06/18/2013 6:13:19 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: txrangerette

I live in a county where dead SEALS - and the lies told about them aren’t a problem.

I live in a country where the IRS, Homeland Security, and the EPA see half the American citizens ( the conservative half ) as potential ‘terrorists’...

I live in a country where a man in the service can’t read a book by Hannity...

AND I’m suppose to care about people in Syria? We’re suppose to die for them? Or we’re suppose to die for Obama? And the IRS? Die for the freedom of a press that acts like a State run press? Sorry.


19 posted on 06/18/2013 6:13:46 AM PDT by GOPJ (Why don't Democrats waste their time trying to win the votes of gun owners? - Coulter)
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To: Sub-Driver
Remember the commercial where Ozzy Osborne needed the GPS on his phone to find the bathroom in his house? I can picture the same thing with Obama and the Situation Room.
20 posted on 06/18/2013 6:14:57 AM PDT by Pan_Yan (I believe in God. All else is dubious.)
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