Good speech. I give Obama credit for making [View all]

[cthulu2016]

Last edited Sat Aug 31, 2013, 02:57 PM - Edit history (7)

the best of a poor situation.


The chief value of this semi-charade is domestic precedent. What promises to be two weird weeks in Washington will have the effect of restraining future presidents somewhat... rolling back the assumption of an imperial presidency. Whatever Congress ends up deciding, it will be harder for future presidents to launch message-sending missiles unilaterally.

Given that the whole thing was looking embarassing, I'm pleased that some positive could come of it, and it think the precedent asking Congress to take it up *at their own speed* (as opposed to under the imminent OMG threat of Fu Manchu) is a benign one.

Also, this was negotiated. That was not played up, but he said that the top people in congress had agreed to take up Syria first in the new session.


Make no mistake. Despite the artful phrasing, Obama did just cancel the planned strikes for lack of global support. This is very much hitting the reset button. (When he said he'll still be ready to go a month from now, that was the equivalent of canceling an alert.)

As to whether any strikes will have the tactical effect of making the world a better place, I continue to doubt it. At this point in time, I would tend to vote no if I were in Congress. (But I predict that something will pass both houses eventually.)

Text of statement:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/08/31/statement-president-syria