Leadership in both chambers of Congress backed a strike. The Senate had an authorization make it through Committee.
Once Putin offered to get Assad to give up his CW, the dynamics changed.
Congress had not refused by the time Putin caved. I’m sure you are speaking hypothetically. One of my points to Magiver is that Putin caved a few days prior to Obama’s address to the nation. So it is quite lame to say that it was dead certain that Congress would no authorize force.
And Putin’s cave in made it more difficult to press for strikes. Once Putin caved I definitely was preferring that the diplomatic means be given a try.
What people like Magiver forget is that Obama’s military objective will be met if Assad’s arsenal is destroyed. The results of threatening military action has produced a better result than whatever the strikes could have accomplished.
That Obama went ahead pressing for strikes against public opinion is commendable … not a blunder.
His commitment to what was right got us the deterrence and destruction activities we are seeing in action today.
But thanks for pointing out to Magiver that Obama has the authority to strike when he made the red-line comment in August 2012 because he is President. That is unless Romney won the election and then a Republican would have had to drum up public and world support to potentially send ground troops in.
Lucky for us and our troops… Romney lost.
But Obama had the authority to strike when he first drew the red line and after he asked Congress to support it and if it were the case that Congress gave no authority - He still could have done it. And I see no blunder there.
Do you think that if Obama had done the Rand Paul hide the US Military in the chicken coop mentality that Putin would have offered to rein Assad in?
Efforts by those who wish to diss this process are pathetically weak. It did not have to be ambitious timeline but within a few months they are attempting to transport CW through a war torn country to put them on ships.
If it truly were a major violation of the terms of the UNSC agreement Obama could still bomb Syria for violating it. We have not destroyed our conventional aresenal by any means. So what could be your point?
That yes, Obama can’t, and no, he did. And that he planned it all along, suckering in Putin so that he wouldn’t do what he didn’t not want to avoid refraining from not abstaining from doing.
Also, cite that I claimed Obama couldn’t bomb Syria, or that this isn’t a major violation.
CW are going away in Syria in 2014 -perhaps by June - hiccup or not for some of the more remote stockpiles. You were wrong and much more proven wrong now.
I’m posting facts and conclusions based upon facts and reason. If facts and reason support the President and none here can dispute the facts so be it, including for those not having a preference for a fact-based discussions.
I make no bones about my support for the Administration, but come on – White House policy toward Syria cannot be called “masterful” by any meaningful definition of the term.
Elimination of illegal CW stockpiles is a good thing, but there is no “masterful” policy toward Syria that does not result in the end of the civil war and Assad being thrown from power. It may be that Assad does fall from power in the next many months or couple years – who knows? But even then, the Administration’s policy toward Syria could not be called “masterful” because it will have taken several years and hundreds of thousands of lives in order to achieve it.
Nobody – absolutely nobody – has draped themselves in glory with respect to the situation in Syria.
Nothing to see here, everything is going according to plan. In fact, this delay is a good thing, because it allows Obama to show how magnanimous he is by not striking Syria because it missed this deadline. Bush would have invaded at 12:00:01am, after all. Hail, Obama!
Oh, you doubters - why do you oppose this magnificent president at every turne? Could it be…
I’m pretty sure there’s no policy at all that will result in that, masterful or not. The bloody clusterfuck will continue until enough people are dead that the war grinds to a halt from inertia, either before or after Assad goes, and not without a lot of outside powers contributing to the mess.
Why isn’t everyone celebrating the fact (not an opinion!) that so many Syrians are now living in Jordan?
Jordan, as a fact, not an opinion, is a better place than Syria. We know this fact, which is not an opinion, because there is no civil war going on in Jordan.