Thread: Krauthammer: Vindicating the Vanity & Ego of a President Who's Become a Laughingstock

Krauthammer: Vindicating the Vanity and Ego of a President Who's Become a Laughingstock Around the World Is No Reason to Go to War

Several Videos at the Page Link

Shamed into war?

By Charles Krauthammer, Publiched in The Washington Post
Having leaked to the world, and thus to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a detailed briefing of the coming U.S. air attack on Syria — (1) the source (offshore warships and perhaps a bomber or two), (2) the weapon (cruise missiles), (3) the duration (two or three days), (4) the purpose (punishment, not “regime change”) — perhaps we should be publishing the exact time the bombs will fall, lest we disrupt dinner in Damascus.

So much for the element of surprise. Into his third year of dithering, two years after declaring Assad had to go, one year after drawing — then erasing — his own red line on chemical weapons, Barack Obama has been stirred to action.

Or more accurately, shamed into action. Which is the worst possible reason. A president doesn’t commit soldiers to a war for which he has zero enthusiasm. Nor does one go to war for demonstration purposes.

Want to send a message? Call Western Union. A Tomahawk missile is for killing. A serious instrument of war demands a serious purpose.

The purpose can be either punitive or strategic: either a spasm of conscience that will inflame our opponents yet leave not a trace, or a considered application of abundant American power to alter the strategic equation that is now heavily favoring our worst enemies in the heart of the Middle East.

There are risks to any attack. Blowback terror from Syria and its terrorist allies. Threatened retaliation by Iran or Hezbollah on Israel — that could lead to a guns-of-August regional conflagration. Moreover, a mere punitive pinprick after which Assad emerges from the smoke intact and emboldened would demonstrate nothing but U.S. weakness and ineffectiveness.

In 1998, after al-Qaeda blew up two U.S. embassies in Africa, Bill Clinton lobbed a few cruise missiles into empty tents in Afghanistan. That showed ’em.

It did. It showed terminal unseriousness. Al-Qaeda got the message. Two years later, the USS Cole. A year after that, 9/11.

Yet even Clinton gathered the wherewithal to launch a sustained air campaign against Serbia. That wasn’t a mere message. That was a military strategy designed to stop the Serbs from ravaging Kosovo. It succeeded.

If Obama is planning a message-sending three-day attack, preceded by leaks telling the Syrians to move their important military assets to safety, better that he do nothing. Why run the considerable risk if nothing important is changed?

The only defensible action would be an attack with a strategic purpose, a sustained campaign aimed at changing the balance of forces by removing the Syrian regime’s decisive military advantage — air power.

http://nation.foxnews.com/2013/08/30...round-world-no

Fox News' Col Ralph Peters Blasts John Kerry for Syria War Statement - August 30, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4QI9H33lOQ

Krauthammer: 'This Is Amateur Hour' for President Obama

Video at the Page Link:



BY FOX NEWS INSIDER //AUG 31 2013 // 2:45PM

President Obama announced today that he will wait for Congress to return from vacation on September 9th for a vote on using limited military action in Syria. The president and Secretary of State John Kerry have both stated that the Assad regime must be held accountable for using chemical weapons on civilians.

---

Video, Transcript: Obama to Seek Congressional Vote on Syria to Use Military Action

---

Last week, the British Parliament voted down Prime Minister David Cameron’s plea to take action in Syria. In reaction to the president's speech, Bret Baier asked, “What president looks at the vote in the British Parliament, […] then says I’d like to do that.”

Charles Krauthammer said he’s most astonished at the lack of urgency. “[Obama] says I can strike in a day or a week or a month as if he’s a judge handing down a sentence and the execution can be anytime in the future. There’s a war going on. Do you think everybody’s going to hold their breath, hold their arms, step aside until Obama decides when he wants to go to Congress? “

Krauthammer believes it’s “absolutely necessary” for the president to seek Congress’s authorization. Deeming it "amateur hour," he said the president should have immediately called in the Congress when the first chemical attack took place. He said that to Syria, Iran and others around the world, “It looks like the president boxed himself into a corner and is looking for a way out.”

Fox News anchor Chris Wallace responded, “I am astonished by what the president has decided to do today.”

“And the president said ‘I’m looking forward to this debate’ as if it’s going to be another campaign,” Wallace criticized. He also noted that the debate and vote will go into mid-September, while at the same time the country faces a budget crisis.

“It’s a good political decision. I’m not so sure it’s a good decision for the commander in chief,” he added.

---

Syria's State-Controlled Media Declares 'Victory' After Obama Stands Down on Military Action

---

READ: Unclassified Intel Report Concludes Syrian Regime Carried Out Chemical Attack

---

http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/08/31...nt-obama-syria