When Barack Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, unleashed a tirade against Russia, Syria, and Iran on Tuesday, some observers wondered why the Obama Administration is only just now finding its voice on the horrors of Syria.
That is an unfair criticism. Obama himself has been calling the Syrian dictator a monster for years. He just doesn’t do anything about it. Having abdicated all responsibility for global leadership, deliberately weakened America abroad with his noxious “smart power” and “lead from behind” philosophy, and created a power vacuum like nothing seen since World War II, Obama has been effectively leaning against the Oval Office wall and wondering when someone else will come along to rescue the Syrian people from Assad.
It’s hard to remember now, given what a comprehensive disaster Obama foreign policy has been around the world, but it is actually the official U.S. position that Bashar Assad must be removed from power. We have trained, armed, and financed local armies for that very purpose. Assad’s apparent victory over the rebellion at Aleppo is a direct defeat of Barack Obama, who leaves office having been bested by a man he (accurately) described as a child-murdering tyrant.
Obama first called for Assad to step down in August 2011. Even then, he was criticized for waiting too long. His administration responded by blatantly lying to reporters about when sanctions were imposed against the Syrian regime for its murder of civilians. Obama’s team even lied about whether the sanctions targeted Assad’s regime directly (they didn’t). They babbled incoherently about “smart power” when they were called on the lies. READ MORE
