Obama’s words on America’s role in the Syrian civil war from the foreign policy debate with Romney
I am against any sort of military engagement in the Middle East. I actually was pleasantly surprised (maybe shocked is more like it) Obama had the courage to openly state that while the USA will provide help to the Syrian opposition it would not be of a military kind. It will not directly arm them nor fight their war for them.
No slippery slope for the USA in Syria. No neocon interjection of American power like we did in Iraq under Bush.
That took guts and smarts to say by Obama. This was the same Obama that took on McCain’s war mongering over Iran (Obama had the guts to remind Americans McCain was singing “bomb, bomb bomb Iran in the debate with him that first time around) and Obama won.
Those that claimed the old Obama is back are wrong. The old Obama never left. He has been in the White House as president for 4 years and the world is a better place for it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/10/22/the-full-transcript-of-the-third-presidential-debate/
OBAMA: What we’ve done is organize the international community, saying Assad has to go. We’ve mobilized sanctions against that government. We have made sure that they are isolated. We have provided humanitarian assistance and we are helping the opposition organize, and we’re particularly interested in making sure that we’re mobilizing the moderate forces inside of Syria.
But ultimately, Syrians are going to have to determine their own future. And so everything we’re doing, we’re doing in consultation with our partners in the region, including Israel which obviously has a huge interest in seeing what happens in Syria; coordinating with Turkey and other countries in the region that have a great interest in this.
This — what we’re seeing taking place in Syria is heartbreaking, and that’s why we are going to do everything we can to make sure that we are helping the opposition. But we also have to recognize that, you know, for us to get more entangled militarily in Syria is a serious step, and we have to do so making absolutely certain that we know who we are helping; that we’re not putting arms in the hands of folks who eventually could turn them against us or allies in the region.
And I am confident that Assad’s days are numbered. But what we can’t do is to simply suggest that, as Governor Romney at times has suggested, that giving heavy weapons, for example, to the Syrian opposition is a simple proposition that would lead us to be safer over the long term.
Thank you, Mr President.