FEBRUARY 19,  2014

AND IN SYRIA – AT 9:28 A.M. ET:   Our policy in Syria has failed.  Dictator Assad remains in power despite our weak president's declaration, two years ago, that he must go.  Thousands more are being killed every month.  Peace talks have broken down.  And we really don't have a new policy.  From Reuters: 

WASHINGTON - Despite a forthcoming review of options in the deteriorating Syria crisis, the White House on Tuesday signaled that President Barack Obama remains wary of any direct US involvement in the three-year-old civil war.

With peace talks between Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and his armed opponents having failed for now, and Russia unwilling or unable to pressure its ally Assad to cede power, US policy toward Syria appears to be approaching a crossroads.

The White House is beginning to take a new look at options in Syria, a process that could take several weeks, US officials have said.

But spokesman Jay Carney suggested that Obama is skeptical about any proposed step that draws the United States into the Syrian civil war, an outcome the US president has studiously avoided.

"We have to examine what the alternatives some might be proposing are, and whether they're in our national security interests, and whether a desire to do something about it could lead us, the United States, to take action that can produce the kind of unintended consequences we've seen in the past," Carney told a news briefing.

COMMENT:  The Obamans always try to sound like such deep intellectuals, when in fact they think like children.  I, too, oppose direct American ground involvement in the Syrian mess.  But Syria is a critical country, and jihadists are getting military training in that country and then returning to their native lands, where they can organize terror gangs.

We depend on our government to develop policies that are effective, and protect us.  We look around and see so many countries in flames – Ukraine, Venezuela, Syria, Egypt, nations in Africa, and yet we have no serious policies to deal with any of these crises, crises that can ultimately affect us here at home. 

We bought hope and change.  We got hopelessness and change for the worse.  Say what you wish about George W. Bush, but at least he was taken seriously.

February 19, 2014