Fake Diplomacy
I can sum up Obama's speech in two words "Flip Flop".
Obama backed down from his John Wayne McCain guns-a-blazing approach to a fake-diplomatic stance "I have, therefore, asked the leaders of Congress to postpone a vote to authorize the use of force while we pursue this diplomatic path."
Mish Translation "God damn it! I don't have the votes"
No Votes
Failure to attain a majority in Congress was clear earlier today when Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell Said 'No' On Syria Strike.
“Does Assad’s use of chemical weapons pose a threat to the national security interests of the United States? And the answer to that question is fairly obvious: Even the president himself says it doesn’t,” McConnell said.
McConnell stood his ground in contrast to House Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid who, like John McCain wanted to proceed with warmongering regardless of costs.
Politico notes "In just the past 24 hours, GOP senators including Roy Blunt of Missouri, Dean Heller of Nevada, Mike Enzi of Wyoming, Johnny Isakson of Georgia and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee have all come out against a strike."
Putin Saves Obama's Ass
Seems to me, Putin saved Obama's ass with a proposal to let Syria destroy its weapons. Obama turned a "God damn it! I don't have the votes" horror story into a diplomatic "Give Peace a Chance" moment.
Putin gained stature and Obama lost stature. Putin's win is Obama's loss even if it temporarily allows Obama to save face.
Hitler Card In Play
Nonetheless, I do not buy the "give peace a chance" line, especially since Obama played the "Hitler Card".
"In World War II, the Nazis used gas to inflict the horror of the Holocaust. Because these weapons can kill on a mass scale, with no distinction between soldier and infant, the civilized world has spent a century working to ban them", said Obama.
A few Days Ago the Guardian accurately appraised the situation as "Faced with sparse support for launching cruise missiles into a civil war, John Kerry compared Bashar al-Assad": Adolf Hitler: When in doubt, say 'Hitler'
Assad (assuming he used gas at all, and that is debatable) used it on political enemies in a civil war. Hitler planned to exterminate an entire race of people, simply because of their race and their faith.
Seriously, how lame is that comparison?
What's the Difference Between the US Using Chemical Weapons and Others Doing the Same?
Blatant Hypocrisy
David Stockman nails the heart of US war-mongering hypocrisy with this question:
"After having rained napalm, white phosphorous, bunker busters, drone missiles, and the most violent machinery of conventional warfare ever assembled upon millions of innocent Vietnamese, Cambodians, Serbs, Somalis, Iraqis, Afghans, Pakistanis, Yemeni, Libyans, and countless more, Washington now presupposes to be in the moral-sanctions business?"
For further Stockman discussion, please see End of U.S. Imperium—Finally!? Obama About to Suffer Glorious Defeat in Congress?
The hypocrisy of Obama (like Bush before him) is astounding. The biggest user of chemical weapons in history is the United States of America.
Don't believe it? For details, please see U.S. Going to Kill Syrians to Show Syria that Killing Syrians is Wrong
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
