President Obama Has Failed America and the World - He Should Do the Decent Thing

President Barack Obama, seeking congressional endorsement for US military action in Syria, invited John McCain and Lindsay Graham, two leading Senate foreign policy hawks, to the White House to try to sell the idea to a nation scarred by more than a decade of war and at a loss what to do about Syria, largely because they do not trust Obama or Congress. Obama said Saturday that he is seeking congressional approval for military strikes against al-Assad, causing Americans and Congress to be equally confused about what to do in Syria. Senators Graham and McCain, both Republicans, represent the most aggressive faction in Congress and have called on Obama to launch more comprehensive strikes with an aim of destroying President Bashar al-Assad's air power, his military command and control, Syria's ballistic missiles, and other military targets while at the same time increasing training and arming of opposition forces. Some Republican and Democratic lawmakers don't want to see military action at all. Members of the House Democratic caucus were to participate in an unclassified conference call Monday with Obama national security adviser Susan Rice, Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Obama strategy with Congress seems to be to argue that failure to act against al-Assad would weaken any deterrence against the use of chemical weapons and could embolden not only al-Assad but also Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. On Sunday, senior Obama officials briefed lawmakers in private to explain why the US must act against al-Assad. Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough also made calls to individual lawmakers. Briefings and further sessions were planned for Tuesday and Wednesday. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee plans a meeting Tuesday. The Senate Armed Service Committee will meet Wednesday. Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, represents a more cautious approach to a military strike, asking to know more from the administration about why military action in Syria is necessary, what it will achieve and how it will be sufficiently limited to keep the US from being drawn further into the Syrian conflict. Representative Elijah Cummings said he was concerned the authorization might be "too broad." Representative Bennie G. Thompson, the senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said the administration still has "work to do with respect to the resolution." Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss and Democratic Senator Tim Kaine both said Sunday they are glad to have the chance to debate the issue in Congress. Kaine said on CBS that he is confident Congress will back up the principle that the use of chemical weapons violates international law and will agree to military strikes to punish Syria's government. Chambliss said it is important for Congress to discuss a military strike. "My constituents are war weary," said Chambliss. "They don't want to see us get involved in this." Kaine agreed that his state, Virginai, with all its connections to the military, has "a sense of fatigue and even a sense of skepticism about assertions with regard to the presence of weapons of mass destruction." If Americans and its elected congressional officials are confused about what to do in Syria, the international community is also ill-at-ease with Obama's explanations. So far, he is finding few international partners willing to engage in a conflict that has claimed more than 100,000 lives in the past 2½ years and dragged in terrorist groups on both sides of the battlefield. The British Parliament rejected the use of force in a vote last week. Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said Monday the information the US showed Moscow to prove the Syrian regime was behind the chemical attack was "absolutely unconvincing." Russian lawmakers have asked to go to Washington to talk with their counterparts. NATO has said it has seen sufficient evidence to confirm that the 21 August chemical attack was carried out by al-Assad forces but added that the envisaged pinpoint strikes do not require NATO command and control capabilities. ~~~~~ We are reaping the whirlwind that was created by Barack Obama's total failure to form or articulate a US foreign policy. It stretches far beyond the immediate Middle East crisis to Russia, China, North Korea and South America. He hangs on in Europe because of NATO and Great Britain and because of Europe's inability to defend itself without US back-up. Obama beat McCain to be elected US President in 2008 and McCain, a former military officer and Vietnamese prisoner of war, has retaken his Senate seat and, as senior Republican foreign policy and military affairs expert, his opinions carry great weight. From the beginning of the Syrian 'revolt,' John McCain has said that America needed to launch comprehensive strikes to destroy al-Assad's air power, military command and control, ballistic missiles, and other military targets, while at the same time increasing training and arming of opposition forces. President Obama said such actions would lead to more deaths, US arms falling into extremist hands as more jihadists entered Syria to radicalize the revolution, and to a wider regional war -- ALL this has happened because Obama thought his words would be enough. He either thought he did not need a policy...or he was incapable of creating one. The consequence? Today we have a Syrian war that has spread to Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan. It has become a religious war between Sunnis and Shiites. Egypt, the critical US proxy in protecting Israel, no longer trusts America. The Arab League is even trying to pass resolutions meant to bolster Obama's fading resolve. AND, today, following Obama's latest major strategic error in refusing to use his war powers authority to strike al-Assad quickly, America and the world are at a loss what to do to help the defuddled American President. ~~~~~ McCain has often said the Syrian leader has used chemical weapons "a number of times before,...and the only thing that will stop that threat is to remove him from power." McCain hesitated, not saying Congress should override Obama's decision : "the consequences of the Congress of the United States overriding a decision of the president of the United States of this magnitude are really very, very serious. And already we're sending a bad signal to Iran, to North Korea, to Bashar al-Assad." McCain added the Syrian opposition's "morale has been devastated" by Obama's plan to wait for Congress, and "Bashar and his people are euphoric. The Iranians are happy....The president's indecision is "problematic." McCain said,"He [Obama] didn't say he [drew] a red line and by the way, 'I'm going to have to seek the approval of Congress.' He said it was a red line and the United States of America would act. And that is a big difference." McCain said Obama could have acted as other presidents, like Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, to take military action, but this time there have been enough leaks that the Syrians know how many US ships and missiles are awaiting action : "I think this has serious consequences as far as steadfastness and purpose of this administration." But McCain does not expect al-Assad to negotiate, because he has too much power and is receiving arms from Iran, Russia, and Hezbollah. "We haven't given the Free Syria Army a single weapon," he said. "This is shameful. The only thing we've given these brave people dying by the droves are MREs that about to expire? That's the kind of assistance?" The answer from Obama came from Secretary of State Kerry : "Rather than have the debate after an attack, the president felt it was much more important for us to act with unity of purpose and in a concerted way." ~~~~~ Dear readers, it is time to act. Congress should follow the program laid out by Senator McCain. With or without President Obama's support. The program should be backed up by a Sense of Congress resolution that America will support, without US ground troops being involved, the Free Syrian Army and National Coalition in defeating al-Assad and rebuilding the decimated country. ~~~~~ AND WHEN THE IMMEDIATE STRIKES ARE OVER, President Obama should do the decent thing - for America and the world. Barack Obama is America's real security problem. He is not psychologically fit to be President of the United States. HE MUST RESIGN.