EJ Dionne: Obama Needs To Lay Out A Moral Position For Syria

Obviously, The Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne takes some swipes at the GOP for failing to be super enthusiastic for whatever-the-hell Obama’s Syria policy is (beyond throwing a few bombs and missiles): that’s expected. By throwing a vote to congress Obama was creating a situation where the GOP could be assaulted no matter what.

Then we get to

They will not prevail, however, unless Obama makes an unabashedly moral case on Tuesday explaining why things are different than they were a few months ago while laying out a practical strategy beyond the strikes. He must do something very difficult: show that his approach could succeed, over time, in replacing Assad with a new government without enmeshing the United States in a land conflict involving troops on the ground.

“They” being the GOP and Dem leaders who want to give Obama Congressional authorization. But, notice that Dionne puts this in squarely moral terms. There’s no national security motive, except in terms of not making Obama look like the total jackass and SCOAMF we, and most world leaders, already know he is.

Notice his headline: Syria puts our system on trial (on the front page it is U.S. resolve on the line, in Congress). So, if we fail to give President McBombypants, who was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, authorization for a meaningless slap on the wrist, out whole system is apparently toast. And will supposedly turn America into a second class nation. I kid you not, that’s how he ends the piece.

Of course, the WP also has a story that 59% still oppose any strikes. Most can see that this isn’t about American interests or security except at the extreme margins, but about helping Obama dig himself out of the hole he dug. It’s Obama’s credibility, not America’s.

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3 Responses to “EJ Dionne: Obama Needs To Lay Out A Moral Position For Syria”

  1. Mike G. says:

    But…but…according to Obama, his credibility isn’t on the line. The international community, America and the Congress’s credibility is on the line.

  2. Well, that does give Obama the ability to play golf at will, since it is Not His Responsibility.

  3. Scared_Of_My_Gumballs says:

    How in the world can there be a moral case after we’ve ignored so many other country’s serious human right’s issues? How many christians have been murdered by muslims on Obama’s watch? How many women and children raped? How many have been decapitated over these last few years?

    How many christians killed by Egyptian muslims? How many female reporters have to be raped?

    But… when terrorists get attacked by another terrorist, then it is a moral duty to act???

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