Obama said the credibility of the United States—and that of the international community as a whole—is at stake. In reality, the only person whose credibility in on the line is Obama's.

Saturday, September 07, 2013

Obama claims that the credibility of the United States is on the line in Syria—Wed.,Sept. 4, 2013>>>Barack Hussein Obama, whose Muslim Brotherhood star may be fading, flew to Stockholm, Sweden to meet with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, hoping against hope that he could get someone in the world community to support his effort to overthrow Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. In a passionate plea for international support to launch sustained military strikes for 60 to 90 days against Syria, Obama said the credibility of the United States—and that of the international community as a whole—is at stake. In reality, the only person whose credibility in on the line is Obama's.
On Sept. 27, 2012 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke before the UN General Assembly and made his famous impassioned "red line" speech in which he put Israel's struggle with Iran into perfect context. Israel could not accept a nuclear Iran, saying "...a nuclear-armed Iran would be analogous to a nuclear-armed al Qaeda. Given the record of Iranian aggression without nuclear weapons," he said, "imagine them with nuclear weapons." The world heard his words, and no one doubted what will happen to Iran when they reach that red line. Not cross it—reach it. Then he said, "Red lines don't lead to war. Red lines prevent war...NATO's red line in Europe helped keep peace in Europe for nearly half a century."
Shortly after Netanyahu established Israel's "red line" on Iran's nuclear program, and it appeared to have no repercussions from any world leader—including the Iranians, Obama decided to get tough on Syria, saying that the "red line" for him would be Syria using chemical weapons—or even just moving them around. Yes, it feels good to talk tough. But when someone calls your bluff (and since it's not yet clear that Bashar Assad is the one who used poison gas on noncombatant men, women and children in Damascus) the world wants to see what you're going to do when your "red line" gets crossed. What do you do if you're Barack Obama? Apparently, you deny, deny, deny.
Which is what he did. In his press conference with Reinfeldt. Obama said, "I didn't set a red line. The world set a red line." When Obama made the "red line" statement, his minions made sure the tough guy's words were posted on the White House website wall in April, 2013. Obama was making it clear to 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (not his first choice for the job) that if the red phone rang at 3 p.m., he knew what to do with it. We now know what that is. Deny. Deny. Deny.
The message on the White House website said: "[T]he people in Syria and the Assad regime should know that the President..." [not my word] "...means what he says when he set that red line..." That was April. In July, Jay Carney reminded the White House press corp that Obama was not bluffing on his red line. Fast forward to Sweden, and we see Obama blaming the world for his words. It's no wonder that no leader in the world believes him.
Obama, sadly, still doesn't doesn't get it after 5 years. "Credibility rules" are different for world leaders than they are for community organizers. When a community organizer runs a bluff, everyone still walks away alive. When a world leader runs a bluff and gets called on it, people die. America can't afford that, and our allies and soon to be former allies have no intention of letting Obama use his executive power magic eraser to make his sins transparent. America needs to stay out of Syria's civil war for one good reason—our enemy's enemy in Syria is still our enemy. - Jon Christian Ryter