All the talking heads in DC are all asking the same question. Since the President didn't seek official approval from Congress for Libya, then why is he seeking it for Syria.
I have the answer. Its about seeking political cover for the blowback that will occur when we attack.
Hezbollah will light Israel up with thousands of missiles. The Syrians will launch even more chemical attacks against the rebels. Suicide bombing would happen all over the Middle East etc...
In other words, Dempsey finally got through to the President. Additionally, with the Brits pulling out, we would be left to fight all these fires by ourselves and the President's popularity would crater.
That's it in a nutshell. The region will burn if we attack and he wants someone to hide behind. Check this out from Commentary.
According to Politico, “At the very least, Obama clearly wants lawmakers to co-own a decision that he can’t back away from after having declared last year that Assad would cross a ‘red line’ if he used chemical weapons against his own people.” And theWashington Post reports:If a Lt in the Basic School showed this type of leadership style, old warhorses like Colonel Fox would seek to get him stripped of his commission.
Obama’s proposal to invite Congress dominated the Friday discussion in the Oval Office. He had consulted almost no one about his idea. In the end, the president made clear he wanted Congress to share in the responsibility for what happens in Syria. As one aide put it, “We don’t want them to have their cake and eat it, too.”
Get it? The president of the United States is preparing in advance to shift the blame if his strike on Syria proves to be unpopular and ineffective. He’s furious about the box he’s placed himself in, he hates the ridicule he’s (rightly) incurring, but he doesn’t see any way out.
What he does see is a political (and geopolitical) disaster in the making. And so what is emerging is what comes most naturally to Mr. Obama: Blame shifting and blame sharing. Remember: the president doesn’t believe he needs congressional authorization to act. He’s ignored it before. He wants it now. For reasons of political survival. To put it another way: He wants the fingerprints of others on the failure in Syria.
Rarely has an American president joined so much cynicism with so much ineptitude.
Now we're seeing this in our Commander in Chief.
