Obama Anti-War Stance Strained by Calls to Act on Syria

[Purveyor]

By Mike Dorning - Aug 27, 2013
Among the pivotal moments of Barack Obama’s political career was an October 2002 speech challenging the tide of public opinion to oppose war with Iraq. His anti-war stance helped him win the Democratic nomination in 2008, and later the White House.

Now, inside the Oval Office, Obama confronts the possibility of embroiling the U.S. in another Mideast conflict, as he considers how to respond to evidence that the Syrian government used chemical weapons against civilians.

On one side is a drumbeat for intervention from allies around the world and some Republicans in Congress. On the other is a U.S. public weary of 12 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan and offering little support for new military commitments in the region.

“There’s a level of irony,” in Obama’s dilemma, said Tad Devine, a Democratic strategist and an adviser on the 2004 presidential campaign of John Kerry, who’s now Obama’s secretary of state.

While his administration begins laying the groundwork for a decision on military action, the president hasn’t hidden his reluctance to act against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. To move forward, he would have to rally the U.S. public.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2013-08-27/obama-anti-war-stance-strained-by-calls-to-act-on-syria.html

[leftstreet]

1. Maybe he could offer to wash Assad's car

This is all such bullshit

Just one more PR spin about how Obama is FORCED!!!11 to do the opposite of what he wants

[Drale]

2. He was against the current wars because he saw they were based on lies but

if Assad really has used Chemical Weapons on his people well that is an Act of War and I really doubt the President would get us stuck in another un-winnable war, that's a Republican thing. Any response from the US is going to be fast hard, and short much like Libya.

[FiveGoodMen]

3. Will we be greeted with flowers?

[Purveyor]

5. "but if" is not justification for launching an attack. Show me the proof Assad used chems. That

is all I'm asking...

[NCTraveler]

4. He was anti Iraq war. It was a very good thing.

He is very far from anti war. The term anti war and Obama should not go together unless Iraq is added.

[MisterP]

6. "anti-war stance"? I bet the lede-writer makes fun of Republicans for living in their own alternate

reality all the time...