Page 14 - August 2012 News Today

Statements. the president in august 2012 make as statement on chemical weapons which was probably ill-advised and not terribly well-thought out. it gets us into the crisis, at least helps get us into the crisis. the secretary of state day before yesterday makes another statement, an offhanded comment which now offers a way out. it reflects the fact that there is not a cohesive policy here. the administration has basically three options. do nothing in the face of largest single deployment of chem...

His lowest point in credibility regarding strikes than hes been since august of 2012 when he instituted the red line. he has a secretary of state who is saying the attack is going to be unbelievably small and you have a congress which is on the verge of voting down his use of force. so if im al-assad and the russians and im looking at this, i dont see a great credibility in the use of force at this point. im seeing the least credibility since august 2012. at least then he wasnt saying hes going ...

Environment for that to happen or hamstrung -- >> lets just say iran. thats what matters here. iran is watching. thats the big challenge here in this region is nuclear armed iran. thats what the president is most concerned about. i think hes also got to make it clear that one of the bedrock principles is not allowing proliferation to occur by the worst regions in the world. in many ways syria should be seen through that prism. hes got to communicate that more effectively. >> lets say one of the ...

Do you see what hes doing get to congress to approve the attack? he told them syrian president assad supports obamacare. >> remember when he was talking about if they find out they used chemical weapons in syria, that would be crossing a red line and if they did that, they would have to go get them? now the preis saying he never used the word red line. he is saying the world used the term red line. it has taken him five years but finally he has learned how to [ bleep ]. >> if memory serves, 100,...

Has to stand up and so far not doing it. whether that should influence the vote the fact it does. if the president as commander-in-chief is not showing strong leadership it is hard to bring along people undecided. i will talk to members about congress trying to encourage them to vote for this but im one person and it is up to the president to be much more forceful and not seem like he is trying to pass the buck on to somebody else. bill: you mentioned it. here it is from yesterday. you will hear...

That this isn in his creation, the line is his, and also the line drawn by the international community, but he adds onto that also by the congress. so now he wants to imply it isnt him who has made this ultimatum essentially, it is the congress, and it has to live up to its obligations. this is a way of a president who narcissistically always speaks about me and my. in fact, we could say he spoke about the my in military and astonishing formulation who when it suits him decides it is not me or m...

Is not on the line, the international community credibility is on the the line. he dodged a question about what he would do if congress doesnt give him the green light. what were you takeaways? >> well, i think it was clear that the president was trying to depersonalize the syria issue aa little bit. that red line explanation is one senior advisers made over the weekend right after, you know, when they held a background briefing about the presidents decision on saturday, when he made that announ...

President obamas failure to remove bashir assad from power. nick was embedded with the rebel forces august 2012. >> that is correct. its incredibly complex. at this moment in time, even after all this, there is simply nobody ready to replace bashir assad. a regime change is incredibly elastic here. talking about a rebel movement when what is there a year ago were possibly palatable to the west and had ideals which may have been compatible with what we as a country or ideology might like them to ...

Chemical weapons, why is that the definition of intervention? >> in august 2012, the president said if they use chemical weapons thats going to be a game changer. >> obviously, its awful that happened. >> right. i would think the use of air power, when the regime gets its fighter jets to level and destroy the city of aleppo and the city of hamas, that would have been the time to do something. the problem with the obama strategy or lack thereof, he comes to this late. its a little too late. >> mu...

And none are this harrowing and horrifying to read. i mean, the graphic detail about the numbers, the specificity, the signals intelligence, the intercepts about people making claims, this is very strong stuff, wolf. and i think it makes a comp compelling case that weve got to do something. as secretary kerry said the risks of inaction probably are very, very great here. >> heres what the president said back in august 2012, a year ago, about that red line. >> we have been very clear to the assad...