- Joined
- Jan 31, 2010
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- Canada, Costa Rica
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- Independent
The President was foolish to back himself into a rhetorical corner by calling chemical weapons a red line in the conflict. Damascus is calling his bluff and now the administration is going to be forced to equivocate (I predict) on the differentiation between small scale use and large scale use. Then at some future point when there is a larger more public display and usage of the weapons we'll see another round of equivocation about how this isn't quite far enough. It is severely damaging to our reputation and hurts our ability to influence the conflict in the future because it degrades the value of our promises for action or support. Maybe I'm wrong but I'd be extremely surprised if this President engaged militarily whatsoever in Syria regardless of what happens.
He's backed himself into too many corners and everyone now knows his words mean nothing.
I rather doubt he will act militarily and obviously America's enemies know this as well. Even if he did, briefly, it would be only be short term satisfaction to save some face.