Former President Barack Obama was presented with the 2017 Profile in Courage award during ceremonies at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston on May 7, 2017. Credit: Steven Senne
Politico: Obama: Not bombing Syria 'required the most political courage'
Barack Obama defended his decision not to bomb Syria as president in an interview published Monday, casting his controversial decision as an act that “required the most political courage.”
Obama spoke with Jack Schlossberg last week before accepting a John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award. Schlossberg, Kennedy’s grandson and a member of the award committee, released a transcript of their conversation in a Medium post on Monday.
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WNU Editor: So much for "red lines". President Obama's interview is here .... A Conversation with President Obama on Political Courage (Jack Schlossberg, John F. Kennedy Library).
More News On President Obama Saying That 'Not Bombing Syria Required The Most Political Courage'
Not bombing Syria' required the most political courage' says Obama -- Daily Mail
Obama: Refusing to Bomb Syria ‘Required the Most Political Courage’ -- Washington Free Beacon
Obama says not bombing Syria took political courage -- NYPost
5 comments:
Trump had guts, bombed them one time, and well...look how we are now doing so much better!
I thought he wanted to but didn't have the votes. https://www.google.com/amp/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58e6f71de4b051b9a9da355d/amp
Steven. It was not the votes .... he had the same authority that President Trump had to order the bombing. It was the politics coupled with no support among the public/media/Democrats/and most of the Republican party at the time. But that was then .... years later everything has changed.
"...everything has changed..." What precisely hss "changed?"
Bombing Syria would've been a bad idea during the Obama Administration. It was a bad idea when Trump did it. As far as so called "red lines", the "red line" never should have been issued in the first place. Sometimes with humans the mouth moves faster than the brain. To then follow up on the "red line" and try and enforce it would've meant doubling down on stupidity.
While I can understand and empathize with human pride. We say something stupid we shouldn't have said. Then someone calls our bluff. Our pride means we sometimes felt compelled to act. If we are the only ones impacted by our words/actions, then we may be compelled to act in certain ways based upon what we said that we shouldn't have said.
Unfortunately POTUS has no such luxuries. If he says something utterly stupidly that he shouldn't have said or makes a promise he shouldn't have made, to then try and filfill the promise or statement recklessly made he undermines the intersts of Americans and places them in even more danger. As such, BHO wisely backed off here.
Did this require "courage?" As I've pointed out here and elsewhere, doing tbat which is right in face of opposition requires courage. In this case, as has been pointed out, BHO had no real support to enforce his "red line." To try and enforce this might have been "courageous" albeit very, very stupid.
Very respectfully the action did not require "courage." At best, he recognized he lacked the necessary "hand" and wisely "folded." I understand BHO is a poker player. I actually HATE game analogies for things as serious as this but in this case it seemed the best way to describe this.
Most likely this is a xase of doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, political expediency. Sorry, courage, I'd have to say no.
What has changed .... the rise of the Islamic State, and the entire Middle East now being engulfed in war.
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