Even as the Obama team stumbles and gropes toward the right policy in Libya, it clings to the usual failed kow-towing in Syria. Why?
Simple. The President doesn't understand what he is doing. Left-winger that he is, he possesses no coherent policy or principle by which to conduct his foreign policy. When he does approximate a correct impulse, as in Libya, he doesn't know why. He himself cannot distinguish between Libya and Syria. Therefore, he is deathly afraid that any inkling of criticism of Assad can be used to compel the U.S. to take military action against him.
Bring on the 'smart power,' Obamazoids! Thanks a million!
Krauthammer:
"Another abject failure. Syria has contemptuously rejected Obama’s blandishments — obsequious visits from Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry and the return of the first U.S. ambassador to Damascus since the killing of Hariri. Assad’s response? An even tighter and more ostentatious alliance with Hezbollah and Iran.
"Our ambassador in Damascus should demand to meet the demonstrators and visit the wounded. If refused, he should be recalled to Washington. And rather than 'deplore the crackdown,' as did Clinton in her walk-back, we should be denouncing it in forceful language and every available forum, including the U.N. Security Council.
"No one is asking for a Libya-style rescue. Just simple truth-telling. If Kerry wants to make a fool of himself by continuing to insist that Assad is an agent of change, well, it’s a free country. But Clinton speaks for the nation."
