Obama's Disaster of Epochal Proportions

Writing about the Obama administration's failure to act in Syria, Washington Post editorial writer Fred Hiatt rips Barack a new one.

This may be the most surprising of President Obama’s foreign-policy legacies: not just that he presided over a humanitarian and cultural disaster of epochal proportions, but that he soothed the American people into feeling no responsibility for the tragedy.

On those rare occasions when political pressure or the horrors of Syrian suffering threatened to overwhelm any excuse for inaction, he promised action. (snip) Once public attention moved on, the plans were abandoned or scaled back to meaningless proportions.

The United States has to consider interests as well as values, must pace itself and can’t save everyone. But a values-free argument ought at least to be able to show that the ends have justified the means, whereas the strategic results of Obama’s disengagement have been nearly as disastrous as the human consequences.

Obama was probably correct that Americans didn't want to become involved militarily in Syria. However, what the public wants isn't always what we should do internationally.