By Jeff Poor, THE DAILY CALLER
Immediately following his statement from the Rose Garden on Saturday, which President Barack Obama said he would delay a strike on Syria until seeking authorization from Congress, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer took to Fox News to slam the president.
Krauthammer criticized Obama for the way he has handled the unfolding of events surrounding the crisis in Syria.
“[T]he most astonishing thing is the lack of any urgency,” Krauthammer said. “As you say, Congress will be back in a week. He says, ‘I can strike in a day or a week or a month,’ as if he is a judge handing down a sentence and the execution can be any time in the future. There is a war going on. Do you think everybody is going to hold their breath, hold their arms, step aside until Obama decides when he wants to go to Congress?
“Look, I think he should go to Congress,” he continued. “I think it is absolutely necessary. But he has done no preparation. What they should have done — I mean, this is sort of amateur hour. When there were the first attacks six months ago or if you like, when we had the current attacks, he should have immediately have called in the Congress the way the prime minister of Britain had called in the parliament, had a debate and got a resolution and then went out and told the world we are going do x or we are not going to do x.”
He went on to say this gesture from Obama looks as if he was seeking a way out of a position he had boxed himself into.
“But the idea that you make the case, you leak the details, you tell the world that this has to be done and then you say, ‘Well, I will take my time. I’ll go to Congress and we’ll see,’” Krauthammer said. “This should be done in three days. It isn’t as if people are not aware of the arguments. You should go out there, bring them in [and] have it done by the end of the week. And the world, I think, will have higher respect. But this looks as if you are a cynic, meaning if you are sitting Syria, Iran, Moscow, it looks like a president who boxed himself into a corner and is looking for a way out.”
The problem to solve is Iran. Obama has the unique opportunity to send though Putin a clear and loud message to Iran. An ultimatum!
What seems to escape everyone, including Krauthammer, is the incredible hypocrisy of any contemplated strike against Syria. So 100 or maybe 1000 civilians were killed by gas released by who knows who. How does that compare to the 100,000 killed in Syria by conventional means? How does that compare to the thousands of Coptic Christians killed conventionally or by burning in their churches? How about the thousands of black Muslims killed by fellow Muslims in Somalia? And of course the only meaningful question ignored is what is in our national interest to go to war with Syria? Haven’t we had enough of these endless wars?
No one doubts Obama’s political acumen, his brilliance as a political strategist and in true Machiavellian tradition having no compunctions about employing truth, lies and every moral or immoral ploy as suits his objective to enhance his or his party’s image in the eyes of the American people and to sully the image of his political opponents.
Such thinking is behind Obama’s calculation in suddenly and shockingly reversing his position on attacking Syria. While again asserting he has an absolute constitutional right to order such attack, he suddenly expresses caring and concern for what Americans want and will put the decision of whether to attack or not in the hands of Congress, the peoples’ duly elected representatives.
By punting this highly controversial and politically risky and problematical question into Congress’s hands, Obama figures he can absolve himself of any responsibility for the decision to attack or not and any domestic political fall out for whatever Congress decides when they get around to it, will fall only on Congress that he constantly demonizes.
To be sure, Obama’s decision will only further rob him of credibility and further tarnish his image on the world stage. No doubt that troubles Obama, but his eye is mostly on politics at home. In particular his primary focus is on his and the Democratic fortunes in the upcoming November, 2014 election, when if he plays his cards right, will see Democrats winning majorities in both Houses of Congress and he can then advance his agenda virtually unimpeded by the Republicans.
No matter what Obama says about caring about and working hard for the welfare of all Americans and caring deeply for the suffering of innocent Syrians, the fact is that he cares only about himself and how history – at least American history, will view him.
He certainly is showing the world his true nature – indecisive, lacking leadership, lacking vision, lacking confidence.