I thought nobody could match Bill Clinton’s ability to spin and parse words (“it depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is), but when it comes to Syria, Team Obama is giving him a run for his money.
Let’s start with yesterday, where Secretary of State John Kerry said a delay in military action actually benefits America militarily — a claim that lacks verisimilitude.
“[W]e’re not losing anything by waiting, and I personally believe there are advantages,” he said. ”This does not in any way deteriorate the fundamental mission of degrading and deterring the use of chemical weapons.”
Right.
But it didn’t stop there. In response to a question from Sen. Rand Paul, Kerry averred: “We don’t want to go to war. We don’t believe we are going to go war in the classic sense of taking American troops and America to war.”
First, I’m not sure what constitutes an act of war, but I suspect bombing another country might qualify. To be fair, Kerry did qualify his statement, specifying that he doesn’t want to go to war in the “classic” sense. This can only be called The Billy Joel Doctrine:
“You can kill them in the classic style
Now you, “parlez vous francais”
Don’t look for answers
You took your chances
Don’t ask me why…”
(It’s important to note that because Kerry is a liberal, the rules don’t apply to him. He isn’t advocating ‘war-war” in the same way that Roman Polanski didn’t commit ‘rape-rape.’)
You might chalk it all up to Kerry having a very bad day — except it didn’t end there. Today, for example, Kerry said President Obama “absolutely would have” still come to Congress even if British Parliament hadn’t voted Prime Minister Cameron down. Again, this seems highly unlikely. I’m skeptical.
Of course, this all pales in comparison to Obama’s absurd claim today that he “didn’t set a red line.”
Not only did Obama certainly set a red line (which has been widely reported), but he expounded on it. For example, he said:
“We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus … That would change my equation…” (Emphasis mine.)
Who says he’s not as good as Clinton?
