Because for once I think Obama did a great job.
A lot of people are criticizing the president over the Syrian conflict and they state that he has no nerve and he will not do what “American needs to do” as if bombing some despot in a third world is what America should be doing. Now granted, doing nothing like he has is sometimes the best course of action. And in so doing nothing, the president has accomplished the following:
1) Syrian Government absolutely abandoned their major cities and fled into the hills. Think of a bunch of rats slinking off the ship when it starts to sink.
2) We manipulated the heck out of the Syrian Government. And the rebels were too scared to score major gains by taking over Government owned but abandoned real-estate. Both sides decided to hide out for a few days and see what was going to happen. We basically forced a cease-fire in the conflict and forced both sides to realize that there really is a red line, and that perhaps Obama spoke a little too literally, but that red line is still there and will be dealt with harshly if the children can not play war nicely with each other.
3) UN Weapons inspectors were able to finish their jobs without being killed or kidnapped and their findings will be complete. (They might have lost some data due to time)
4) Either side will now think twice before they use chemical weapons.
And the best thing of all, force is always still on the table. Patience is a game best served in international diplomacy and often times doing nothing is the best course of action because it gives people time to cool off, reflect and perhaps realize that in the future such conduct might just be met with military might. At this point we can only hope that congress makes the right decision and actually decides to also follow through on this course of nothing. With most of America against intervention at this point, I sure hope we can count on Congress to do the right thing and do nothing.
Now the question is whether these results were what Obama was going for or if he does indeed lack the nerve to follow through and only by accident did he do the right thing? Who knows what goes on in the mind of the man who passes the buck to congress and then goes golfing using taxpayer monies?
But in any regard I have just a couple comments for people in the rest of the world who are stating that America is weak or that America has lost its nerve. I will counter-claim that we have re-gained our ability to reason and to use intelligence both figuratively and literally.
BenfromMO 