Obama says he didn’t draw the 'Red Line' on Syria

[Sunni Man]

St. Petersburg, Russia -- President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he didn’t set the “red line” against Syria for the use of chemical weapons.

“I didn’t set a red line, the world set a red line,” Obama said. “My credibility is not on the line. The international community’s credibility is on the line. And America and Congress’ credibility is on the line because we give lip service to the notion that these international norms are important.”

Obama said Wednesday that he didn’t pluck the idea of a red line “out of thin air,” but was referring to a global treaty banning the use of chemical weapons, “which the overwhelming consensus of humanity says is wrong.”

Obama says he didn’t draw the red line on Syria, world did - Bee Nation/World News - The Sacramento Bee

 

[waltky]

'Red line' Another Obama Promise That Came & Went...

'Red line' just one of roughly 500 Obama promises that have come and gone
September 22, 2013 President Obama vowing that Syria would “cross a red line” by using chemical weapons is far from the only marker he’s laid down or promise he’s tried to keep since running for president in 2008.

The president has made more than 500 campaign-related promises alone. And just last week he re-drew a line in the sand for congressional Republicans flirting with shutting down the government over his Affordable Care Act and looking for spending cuts as part of a separate deal to increase the federal debt limit. “That’s not happening,” Obama said. “I will not negotiate over the full faith and credit of the United States.” The president has had mixed success in keeping that vow over the past few years. He managed in January to get the debt ceiling raised without yielding to Republicans’ demand for accompanying spending cuts.

However, in 2011 he failed to reach a “grand bargain” with House Republicans over the debt ceiling, forcing both sides to eventually accept a series of drastic spending cuts known as sequester. “The sequester is not something that I've proposed,” Obama announced in his final 2012 presidential debate. “It is something that Congress has proposed.” PolitiFact -- the Pulitzer Prize-winning project of the Tampa Bay Times that has essentially tracked all of the president’s major promises -- ruled Obama’s argument “mostly false.” “It was Obama’s negotiating team that came up with the idea,” wrote PolitiFact.

The project finds that Obama has kept 241, or 45 percent, of his roughly 500 campaign promises, while breaking 118, or 22 percent, and compromising on roughly 25 percent. The remaining 8 percent are essentially still to be determined. Though tracking a president’s promises is among Washington’s favorite parlor games, Obama’s “red line” vow in August 2012 has perhaps become his most debated and closely watched -- as it plays out on an international stage. Obama waited for months, amid reports that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was using a chemical weapon in that country’s roughly 2-year-long civil war. However, after reviewing compelling evidence about an Aug. 21 sarin-gas attack that killed nearly 1,500 Syrians, the president said the United States must take military action.

The president appeared to try to blur the red line when he said earlier this month: "I didn’t set a red line. The world set a red line. … My credibility isn't on the line. The international community’s credibility is on the line." The outcome remains in flux as Congress, at the president’s request, considers whether to authorize the use of limited military force and Syria moves closer to a diplomatic solution in which it would put its chemical weapons under international control. PolitiFact has picked Obama’s top 25 promises and concluded he has kept nine, broken six and compromised on seven with three still in the works. Among the most significant kept promises are removing U.S. combat troops from Iraq and ending the use of torture as an interrogation tactic on international prisoners.

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[Claudette]

Must have been Bush.

 

[rightwinger]

What did Obama threaten to do if the red line were crossed?

 

[Derideo_Te]

'Red line' Another Obama Promise That Came & Went...

'Red line' just one of roughly 500 Obama promises that have come and gone
September 22, 2013 President Obama vowing that Syria would “cross a red line” by using chemical weapons is far from the only marker he’s laid down or promise he’s tried to keep since running for president in 2008.

The president has made more than 500 campaign-related promises alone. And just last week he re-drew a line in the sand for congressional Republicans flirting with shutting down the government over his Affordable Care Act and looking for spending cuts as part of a separate deal to increase the federal debt limit. “That’s not happening,” Obama said. “I will not negotiate over the full faith and credit of the United States.” The president has had mixed success in keeping that vow over the past few years. He managed in January to get the debt ceiling raised without yielding to Republicans’ demand for accompanying spending cuts.

However, in 2011 he failed to reach a “grand bargain” with House Republicans over the debt ceiling, forcing both sides to eventually accept a series of drastic spending cuts known as sequester. “The sequester is not something that I've proposed,” Obama announced in his final 2012 presidential debate. “It is something that Congress has proposed.” PolitiFact -- the Pulitzer Prize-winning project of the Tampa Bay Times that has essentially tracked all of the president’s major promises -- ruled Obama’s argument “mostly false.” “It was Obama’s negotiating team that came up with the idea,” wrote PolitiFact.

The project finds that Obama has kept 241, or 45 percent, of his roughly 500 campaign promises, while breaking 118, or 22 percent, and compromising on roughly 25 percent. The remaining 8 percent are essentially still to be determined. Though tracking a president’s promises is among Washington’s favorite parlor games, Obama’s “red line” vow in August 2012 has perhaps become his most debated and closely watched -- as it plays out on an international stage. Obama waited for months, amid reports that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was using a chemical weapon in that country’s roughly 2-year-long civil war. However, after reviewing compelling evidence about an Aug. 21 sarin-gas attack that killed nearly 1,500 Syrians, the president said the United States must take military action.

The president appeared to try to blur the red line when he said earlier this month: "I didn’t set a red line. The world set a red line. … My credibility isn't on the line. The international community’s credibility is on the line." The outcome remains in flux as Congress, at the president’s request, considers whether to authorize the use of limited military force and Syria moves closer to a diplomatic solution in which it would put its chemical weapons under international control. PolitiFact has picked Obama’s top 25 promises and concluded he has kept nine, broken six and compromised on seven with three still in the works. Among the most significant kept promises are removing U.S. combat troops from Iraq and ending the use of torture as an interrogation tactic on international prisoners.

MORE

Since the Obama administration has just signed an agreement with Russia to disarm Syria's chemical weapons how is that a "promise" not kept?

 

[LordBrownTrout]

What did Obama threaten to do if the red line were crossed?

Fold and defer to russia.

 

[Jarhead]

What did Obama threaten to do if the red line were crossed?

That's an easy out.

But rational people believe that when one sets a line and refers to it as a game changer.....then it will be a game changer.

So exactly what has Obama done that can be deemed a game changer?

All I seem to recall is him THREATENING and then saying to Russia....(paraphrased).....'you take the ball, I aint got nothing.'

 

[jon_berzerk]

What did Obama threaten to do if the red line were crossed?

pen a strongly worded letter

 

[rightwinger]

What did Obama threaten to do if the red line were crossed?

Fold and defer to russia.

Worked didn't it?

 

[rightwinger]

What did Obama threaten to do if the red line were crossed?

That's an easy out.

But rational people believe that when one sets a line and refers to it as a game changer.....then it will be a game changer.

So exactly what has Obama done that can be deemed a game changer?

All I seem to recall is him THREATENING and then saying to Russia....(paraphrased).....'you take the ball, I aint got nothing.'

Obama spoke of consequences not invasion

Syria surrendering their chemical weapons stockpile is a consequence

 

[Jarhead]

What did Obama threaten to do if the red line were crossed?

Fold and defer to russia.

Worked didn't it?

if you consider putting our trust in Putin as "working", then, yes, it worked.

My how we have come such a long way......counting on Russia to follow through with our requests.

How pathetic is that?

 

[Jarhead]

What did Obama threaten to do if the red line were crossed?

That's an easy out.

But rational people believe that when one sets a line and refers to it as a game changer.....then it will be a game changer.

So exactly what has Obama done that can be deemed a game changer?

All I seem to recall is him THREATENING and then saying to Russia....(paraphrased).....'you take the ball, I aint got nothing.'

Obama spoke of consequences not invasion

Syria surrendering their chemical weapons stockpile is a consequence

lol. That is a consequence?

So I guess you would consider "taking the illegal gun away" from a man who shot an innocent victim as a "consequence" of his actions.

 

[Redfish]

Fold and defer to russia.

Worked didn't it?

if you consider putting our trust in Putin as "working", then, yes, it worked.

My how we have come such a long way......counting on Russia to follow through with our requests.

How pathetic is that?

its worse than pathetic. Putin made Obama look like a fool on the world stage. And the libs here in the USA continue to celebrate the incompetence of their hero---that is whats pathetic.

 

[rightwinger]

Fold and defer to russia.

Worked didn't it?

if you consider putting our trust in Putin as "working", then, yes, it worked.

My how we have come such a long way......counting on Russia to follow through with our requests.

How pathetic is that?

Trust in Putin vs putting our armed forces into the fray?

Yes, I will take my chances

 

[Camp]

What did Obama threaten to do if the red line were crossed?

That's an easy out.

But rational people believe that when one sets a line and refers to it as a game changer.....then it will be a game changer.

So exactly what has Obama done that can be deemed a game changer?

All I seem to recall is him THREATENING and then saying to Russia....(paraphrased).....'you take the ball, I aint got nothing.'

The game changer was the deployment of the 6th Fleet off the coast of Syria and the announcement that the USA was planning to strike. The ball wasn't given to Russia until Russia had removed all of it's military personel from Syria and withdrawn it's flotilla of 16 warships and replaced it with a 4 or 5 ship rescue squad to remove Russian citizens from Syria if needed. The effect was that Assad admitted having chemical weapons and an agreement to allow Russia and the UN to remove those weapons.

 

[rightwinger]

That's an easy out.

But rational people believe that when one sets a line and refers to it as a game changer.....then it will be a game changer.

So exactly what has Obama done that can be deemed a game changer?

All I seem to recall is him THREATENING and then saying to Russia....(paraphrased).....'you take the ball, I aint got nothing.'

Obama spoke of consequences not invasion

Syria surrendering their chemical weapons stockpile is a consequence

lol. That is a consequence?

So I guess you would consider "taking the illegal gun away" from a man who shot an innocent victim as a "consequence" of his actions.

If we bombed him and he said....I will surrender my chemical stockpile as a result we would have achieved the same objective

What outcome in Syria would you have preferred?

 

[Redfish]

Obama spoke of consequences not invasion

Syria surrendering their chemical weapons stockpile is a consequence

lol. That is a consequence?

So I guess you would consider "taking the illegal gun away" from a man who shot an innocent victim as a "consequence" of his actions.

If we bombed him and he said....I will surrender my chemical stockpile as a result we would have achieved the same objective

What outcome in Syria would you have preferred?

Syria's civil war is none of our business. We should not be trying to control the outcome of civil wars in other countries.

Just look how well the worked for us in viet nam---------58,000 dead americans, billions of dollars --------- FOR NOTHING.

 

[rightwinger]

lol. That is a consequence?

So I guess you would consider "taking the illegal gun away" from a man who shot an innocent victim as a "consequence" of his actions.

If we bombed him and he said....I will surrender my chemical stockpile as a result we would have achieved the same objective

What outcome in Syria would you have preferred?

Syria's civil war is none of our business. We should not be trying to control the outcome of civil wars in other countries.

Just look how well the worked for us in viet nam---------58,000 dead americans, billions of dollars --------- FOR NOTHING.

I agree

Pull chemical weapons out of the equation and let them go at it

 

[Redfish]

which person is more dead? the one blown to bits by a bomb, the one with a 50 cal bullet through his/her head, or the one gassed with chemicals?

why do we want to go to war over 1400 killed by CW and care nothing about 100,000 killed by bombs and bullets?

 

[Redfish]

If we bombed him and he said....I will surrender my chemical stockpile as a result we would have achieved the same objective

What outcome in Syria would you have preferred?

Syria's civil war is none of our business. We should not be trying to control the outcome of civil wars in other countries.

Just look how well the worked for us in viet nam---------58,000 dead americans, billions of dollars --------- FOR NOTHING.

I agree

Good, then why are you defending obama's entry into Syria's civil war?