Why did this president decide this is the time for US intervention in Syria?

There has been no clarity, no consistency and practically no plan in his remarks, so people are having a hard time taking him seriously. Charles Krauthammer captures the essence of the moment here.

Senator Bob Corker: “What is it you’re seeking?”


— Senate hearing on the use of force in Syria, September 3

We have a problem. The president proposes attacking Syria, and his top military officer cannot tell you the objective. Does the commander-in-chief know his own objective? Why, yes. “A shot across the bow,” explained Barack Obama.



This is risible. If anything, a pinprick from which Assad emerges unscathed would simply enhance his stature and vindicate his conduct. Deterrence depends entirely on perception and the perception in the Middle East is universal: Obama wants no part of Syria.

Assad has to go, says Obama, and then lifts not a finger for two years. Obama lays down a red line, and then ignores it. Shamed finally by a massive poison-gas attack, he sends Kerry to make an impassioned case for righteous and urgent retaliation — and the very next day, Obama undermines everything by declaring an indefinite timeout to seek congressional approval.

This stunning zigzag, following months of hesitation, ambivalence, contradiction, and studied delay, left our regional allies shocked and our enemies gleeful. I had strongly advocated going to Congress. But it was inconceivable that, instead of recalling Congress to emergency session, Obama would simply place everything in suspension while Congress finished its Labor Day barbecues and he flew off to Stockholm and St. Petersburg…

And yet here is Obama, having done nothing yet but hesitate, threaten, retract, and wander about the stage, claiming Wednesday in Sweden to be the conscience of the world, upholding not his own red line but the world’s. And, incidentally, Congress’s — a transparent attempt at offloading responsibility.

This is deeply troubling for the administration’s mishandling and embarrassing show of irresponsibility, as Krauthammer points out.


That’s why Dempsey is so glum. That’s why U.S. allies are so stunned. There’s no strategy, no purpose here other than helping Obama escape self-inflicted humiliation.


That reference to the red line that Obama declared, then denied that he declared, is the public dissembling of a president who’s in over his head and may or may not realize that the shell game he’s so good at isn’t working this time.

Fittingly, Obama used a joint press conference in Stockholm with the Swedish Prime Minister to massage his own role in the diplomatic debacle over Syria in which Obama now finds himself. Obama insisted that he didn’t set a “red line” for action over the use of chemical weapons, but that Congress did … and so did everyone else, except Obama, of course: 



It’s not surprising that he can’t get a big portion of his own party or base to support him, finally. Nancy Pelosi says she doesn’t know if the president can get a majority of House Democrats to back an attack on Syria.






Full stop.

I was driving and listening to satellite radio in the car, switching stations at times to stay on coverage of the Syria debate. I came upon a panel discussion on CNN in time to hear former Clinton administration staffer and Democratic strategist Paul Begala say, repeatedly, that American are “war weary” and that’s the main reason for lack of support on this one. He went on to say it will take at least the next 50 years or so before we begin to get over “the debacle in Iraq”, and then repeated that we’re just “war weary.”

Yes, we are. But I’m always leery of buzzwords or phrases that turn up over and over in different news sites, used by different mouthpieces for any administration of either party at any time. This one has been particularly heavy-handed with talking points with a very complicit media, hence the obvious nature of the political meme of the moment.

So why would something that seems to suggest the president is on the wrong track continue to be repeated by his backers? To give him cover. Because Americans really are war weary, and so are the smart members of Congress in both parties, enough to ask the right questions and study the ramifications of their vote.

Alas, the president seems to be floundering.




Which gets to the heart of it all. After Paul Begala made those remarks about Americans being ‘war weary’, he and other panelists engaged in the political calculations of what a strike on Syria would cost or gain the president, his administration and his party’s future in the next elections. That bugs me a lot, how moral decisions turn into political calculations, and have for so many years. This USA Today article illustrates that clearly. So does this New York Times article.

Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George was on my radio show this week and I brought that up to him. He agreed, but said we shouldn’t be surprised, because everything has turned into a political calculation these days, frankly. He addressed the different angles on the Syrian debate and said it doesn’t measure up to the ‘just war’ criteria Christians apply to such interventions.

Pope Francis has called for intervention over Syria, too. And his is a plan that should unify the world.







This is the Syrian we, and they, need most.

Sheila Liaugminas
