After carelessly running his mouth just over a year ago by “drawing” red lines in the sand regarding use of chemical weapons on civilians by the rogue Syrian regime, and now the back-and-forth in regards to an American “response” (clearly there never was a strategy for if and when that line is ever crossed), I can’t help but wonder, is President Obama serious or does he think it’s amateur hour at the local comedy club?
The proper role of a government is to protect the rights of its own citizens, not those of another nation. President Obama, like the last 43 presidents before him, took an oath to “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” His oath was not to protect the oppressed masses of the entire world. What is happening in Syria is a tragedy, to say the least, but, absent a legitimate threat to American life, liberty, and property, it is simply not our responsibility. The only proper measure for our president to take is to denounce the atrocity and give moral support to the people to overthrow their tyrannic leader and institute new government based on rational principles.
With that in mind, it’s apparent our President has put himself and this country between a rock and hard place. He has forced us into a corner with no good options--renege on a threat, and he and our country appear weak and our enemies become emboldened (in fact, since he has decided to put a pause on beating the war drums, Syria has already declared we are in “retreat.” I’m sure Al-Qaeda is happy to hear this)--act, and America is dragged into yet another war with more of our blood potentially spilled and our treasure sacrificed (this, however, also runs the risk of us appearing weak if we “respond” tepidly, as our President has seemingly and oddly promised). What to do now? No good options because our most inexperienced Narcissist-in-Chief had to open his mouth.
Of course, another consequence of all this is that we lose credibility with our allies, as well. After declaring our intent to act and then retracting, our allies would be right in wondering if we are to be trusted or relied upon in the future. Who wants to have a wavering unpredictable sidekick?
This is just the latest despicable example of America’s ongoing leadership crisis and I worry how such a projection of weakness will affect us all in the long-term. If history is any guide, we are in for some dark times ahead.
