OPINION:
Let’s not forget that the two-year-old Syrian quagmire was worsened by a president shooting from the lips in threatening military force should Syria’s Bashar Assad use chemical weapons against his own people. This quagmire has been worsened with President Obama’s muddled statement that the world community, not America, declared a “red line.”
The incompetence of this president was on display for the world to see when he obviously failed to evaluate all possible courses of action and potential consequences prior to issuing his ultimatum. He failed to state the goal of any military action or the potential for setting off a wider regional war should innocent civilians be killed or should a stray American missile hit a Russian base in Syria. He failed to establish a strategy or potential end point of any military action. He failed to consult with allies or the United Nations. He went to Congress only after failing to get support from any quarter.
However, one does have to wonder whether going to Congress to approve military action against Syria is a ploy by Mr. Obama to distract Congress from unraveling the transgressions of this administration. These include Operation Fast and Furious, Benghazi and the IRS and AP fiascos. Going to Congress also delays efforts to resolve the Obamacare defunding effort, the looming national-debt crisis and the growing nuclear threat of Iran.
Perhaps Mr. Obama had no intention of initially adopting this ploy, but perhaps he is being influenced by the famous quote by his onetime chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”
WARREN A. MANISON
Potomac
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