◼ Timeline: Obama’s two-year attempt to avoid military action in Syria - Susan Crabtree/Washington Examiner
Since the Syrian uprising began in spring 2011, President Obama has been reluctant to get involved in the violent clashes between the government led by Bashar Assad and the rebel opposition.
Despite this caution, Obama shocked his own national security team by warning Assad in August 2012 that the use of chemical weapons would cross a “red line” and change his calculus toward Syria.
In the months following, even in the face of small-scale chemical weapons attacks, Obama dragged his feet in ordering a major U.S. response by saying that the intelligence community needed more evidence that chemicals were deployed or by putting off military action by agreeing to provide more support to the rebels.
But reports of a large-scale chemical attack by Assad’s forces in eastern Damascus last week left Obama little choice but to launch a military strike or face credibility concerns at home and abroad.
Here’s a timeline of how we got here... at the link.
◼ Originalism and the Constitutionality of Military Intervention in Syria - The Volokh Conspiracy
◼ The Syria decision: President Obamlet - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion
On Syria, it seems Obama’s made up his mind about what to do but then again perhaps he’s not made up his mind at all.
Maybe it’s all a clever strategic head-fake on Obama’s part. I doubt it, however; his slowness to come to a decision in military matters has become legendary.
The whole thing is also an opportunity to visit Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy on procrastination and the perils of decision-making and gear it to Obama’s predicament. Surprisingly little needed to be changed to make it fit...
◼ Actual quote in LA Times story: Obama seeking Syria response ‘just muscular enough not to get mocked’ - Doug Powers/Michelle Malkin
Being a Nobel Peace Prize winner trying to show you mean business is a tricky thing, because dancing that fine line between Rambo and Gandhi can be politically dicey. This quote in an L.A. Times story, while coming from the oft-quoted and occasionally unreliable “anonymous official,” does make sense because it best sums up the pickle Obama has put himself in over Syria...
