Obama Now Brags of His ‘Courage’ in Not Attacking Syria

He Actually Wanted to Attack Syria Until Public Turned Against Him

In a stunning act of historical revisionism, President Obama is now presenting his having not attacked Syria in 2013 as an act of “the most political courage,” and bragging of having removed “99%” of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile without firing a shot.

For those who remember, President Obama not only wanted to attack Syria in 2013, he appointed Secretary of State John Kerry as the “chief advocate” for that war, and continued to argue even after Britain pulled out that he could launch such a war unilaterally in the face of Congressional opposition, until overwhelming public opposition forced him to back away from the plan and accept Syria’s disarmament deal.

Obama’s sudden satisfaction with having not started that particular war, among his assorted other wars, must be a very recent change, as within his last month in office Secretary Kerry was loudly lamenting that he and Obama hadn’t gotten away with starting the war. Obama complained others weren’t ready to “take over Syria” to do more in the conflict, and had confirmed his lack of invading Syria “haunts” him.

It appears Obama’s change of heart happened roughly concurrently with President Trump attacking Syria, which suddenly made the idea a lot less fashionable among at least some Democrats. Trump, ironically,, had been averse to attacking Syria until roughly the same time, complaining it might get the US into a war with Russia, which it might still.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.