Tag: Syria

Obama Responds to Murder of Steven Sotloff

Buck Banks

Whatever these murders think they’ll achieve by killing innocent Americans like Steven, they have already failed. They failed because, like people around the world, Americans are repulsed by their barbarism. We will not be intimidated. Their horrific acts only unite us as a country and stiffen our resolve to fight against these terrorists and those who make the mistake of harming Americans will learn that we will not forget and that our reach is long and that justice will be served.

— President Obama, quoted by McClatchy News Service, on the beheading of journalist Steven Sotloff.

Clinton Criticizes Obama’s Foreign Policy

Buck Banks

Great nations need organizing principles, and ‘Don’t do stupid stuff’ is not an organizing principle.

— Hillary Clinton, in an interview with The Atlantic, said President Obama’s lack of assistance to Syrian rebels led to the rise of ISIS in Iraq. She also criticized the slammed Obama’s foreign-policy doctrine which he recently coined as, “Don’t do stupid shit.”

I Really Want to Buy Into This Slate Pitch, But …

Buck Banks

I’m not sure I can swallow the assertion that Barack Obama is the shrewdest political tactician since LBJ, but David Corn does make a compelling case, and I really do want to believe that all this time Obama knew exactly what he was doing on Syria, Putin and the debt showdown.

I suppose he’s just being Lincoln-esque. Again …

Do you buy the pitch?

Sullivan: Enough with the Eye-Rolling Already!

Buck Banks

I’m tired of the eye-rolling and the easy nit-picking of the president’s leadership on this over the last few weeks. The truth is: his threat of war galvanized the world and America, raised the profile of the issue of chemical weapons more powerfully than ever before, ensured that this atrocity would not be easily ignored and fostered a diplomatic initiative to resolve the issue without use of arms.

— Andrew Sullivan, writing on his Dish blog.

If Obama Loses Syria Vote, So What?

Buck Banks

Presidents suffer defeats all the time. Obama lost on cap-and-trade. He’s lost on plenty of judicial and executive branch nominations. He couldn’t get agreement for a grand bargain. He lost on gun control. What’s more, Republicans have been opposing him on virtually everything from the day he took office. In what concrete way would a defeat on Syria change this dynamic in even the slightest way?

— Kevin Drum, writing in Mother Jones.

If Obama Loses Syria Vote, There Goes His Credibility

Buck Banks

It is to President Obama’s great discredit that he has staked this credibility on a vote whose outcome he failed to game out in advance. But if he loses that vote, the national interest as well as his political interests will take a tangible hit: for the next three years, American foreign policy will be in the hands of a president whose promises will ring consistently hollow, and whose ability to make good on his strategic commitments will be very much in doubt.

— Ross Douthat, writing in the New York Times.