Page 27 - August 2012 News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

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 chemical weapons against civilians since saddam gassed the kurds in 1988. do everything and try to get i...

His lowest point in credibility regarding strikes than he's 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 i'm al-assad and the russians and i'm looking at this, i don't see a great credibility in the use of force at this point. i'm seeing the least credibility since august 2012. at least then he wasn't saying he's going to bring it to congress. he was saying that he could strike at any moment if they use this. n...

Environment for that to happen or hamstrung -- >> lets just say iran. that's what matters here. iran is watching. that's the big challenge here in this region is nuclear armed iran. that's what the president is most concerned about. i think he's 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. he's got to communicate that more effectively. >> lets say one of the real problems i think with his communication was when he said this wasn't my red line. here he ...

Do you see what he's 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, 100,000 syrians have already died during the conflict with bashar al assad with no military interventio...

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 i'm 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 from 13 months ago. watch. >> i didn't set a red line. the world set a red line. we have been very...