Obama wants you to know that he didn’t build that “red line” in Syria.
You built it.
The roads and bridges and firefighters and the soldiers, sailors and airmen that you pay with your taxes, they built that red line.
The seas that have risen unabated thanks to global warming, the despair caused by the War on Women in the Arab world- you know the one where the Catholic Church in the United States objects to paying for abortions and birth control?- these are things the world community contributed to building that red line in Syria.
Thus, the world, helped build that red line too.
It’s their red line. And your red line.
But Obama did not build that line.
He didn’t build it. Nor does he own it. He didn’t build the economy or the healthcare system or the rescue of Detroit either.
Not. Obama.
In fact, he told me he was playing cards during all that stuff.
Secretary of State John Kerry wants you to know that while the invasion of Iraq didn’t pass his or the world community’s “global smell test,” that the Syria thing is an entirely different matter, even if the world disagrees with him.
When pressed for details on how the Syrian intervention passes the “global smell test,” the White House offered up the latest technology: the “common sense test.”
From the Associated Press:
The White House asserted Sunday that a "common-sense test" dictates the Syrian government is responsible for a chemical weapons attack that President Barack Obama says demands a U.S. military response. But Obama's top aide says the administration lacks "irrefutable, beyond-a-reasonable-doubt evidence" that skeptical Americans, including lawmakers who will start voting on military action this week, are seeking.
"This is not a court of law. And intelligence does not work that way," White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said, part of a five-network public relations blitz Sunday to build support for limited strikes against Syrian President Bashar Assad.
"The common-sense test says he is responsible for this. He should be held to account," McDonough said of the Syrian leader who for two years has resisted calls from inside and outside his country to step down.
White House Chief of Staff McDonough knows A LOT about how intelligence works too, if not common sense…or, you know, the actual science of sarin gas detection.
McDonough handled strategic communications and chief of staff duties for the National Security Council during the lock-down, no leak, worldwide Obama-killed-Osama-with-His-Bare-Hands tour that later was made into several TV movies.
You remember them? The films made after the White House turned over all the classified documents on the bin Laden killing to those top-secret keepers in Hollywood who write stories for a living?
McDonough apparently handled the ultra scientific part of intelligence for the National Security Council where stuff was “fabricated,”... to use the intell lingo that he’s familiar with.
Because while the data from Syria that government forces under Assad used sarin gas on civilians may pass the White House’s “common sense test,” we all know that that bar is pretty low.
Two words: Joe Biden.
Someone may have used sarin gas in Syria, but it's just as likely Obama's rebel allies did it as the Assad regime did.
As our contributor from NightWatch has pointed out, the White House common sense test would go down better with cookies and warm milk than it would as intelligence (also known as G2):
“With this Russian document,” writes NightWatch, “there are four national reports about the use of gas in Syria; one each from the US, France, the UK and Russia. The three Western reports provide circumstantial evidence at best. They are not intelligence appraisals because they fail to address contradictory and contrarian evidence that is at least as strong as that which they present in support of their case. They are advocacy, not intelligence.”
NightWatch is not alone in their criticism of the White House G2.
Differences regarding intelligence on the composition, strength and leadership of the rebels also plagues the executive branch.
“US Secretary of State John Kerry's public assertions that moderate Syrian opposition groups are growing in influence appear to be at odds with estimates by US and European intelligence sources and nongovernmental experts,” writes the Jerusalem Post, “who say Islamic extremists remain by far the fiercest and best-organized rebel elements."
Perhaps that’s the reason why the White House wants to shut down debate on Syrian intelligence, just as they have on every issue of importance from global warming to alternative energy to job creation to Obamacare.
(Hint: The White House has been very, very-- even historically-- wrong on some of these issues of “settled” science that they no longer want to debate.)
“White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said ‘nobody now debates’ U.S. intelligence showing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is responsible for a deadly chemical attack near Damascus last month,” reported Bloomberg.com.
Uh, no one in the White House debates it. The rest of us still have our doubts
“He is responsible for this and should be held accountable,” McDonough said several times while tapping his ruby slippers together.
So now all we can do is wait for Al Gore to make a cameo appearance with his Nobel Prize and a new movie, WMD’s II: The Inconvenient Spoof.
“Bush did some things every president should do in embarking on any major military venture,” explains the Chicago Tribune. “He stated a clear mission (removing Saddam), explained his reasons to the American people over and over, and took concrete measures to achieve his objective. Those are areas where Barack Obama might have learned from Bush. If he had, the task of confronting Syria's Bashar Assad would be a lot easier.”
Using Bush's communication strategy regarding the war in Iraq as a communication template for the Obama administration just tells you how far gone this administration is on Syria.
Out of touch? Ha! Out of excuses is more like it.
Obama should listen to his hometown paper's indictment of John Kerry's would-be "war of choice" in Syria. It won't just be a bumper sticker. Real people will die.
Because if Obama wanted to make the case that there was a “right” way to go to war, a "right" way to build a consensus or a "right" way to build coalition, there is one thing he proved for sure: He didn’t build any of it.
But here’s a finger wag to the Tribunes of the world, the ones that endorsed Obama-for-president twice, and the liberals and the peaceniks and Occupiers and racist deniers who thought Obama brought us peace in our time.
Psalm 55:21... ahem:
The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart.
YOU built that part.
And now you know how the rest of us feel.
You can un-build this any time now.