Saturday, February 09, 2013

Brain Trust

I've long wondered why it wasn't a no-brainer to arm rebels to stick it to the regime that has a lot of American blood on its hands. Apparently, I am not alone in thinking that is what our Syria policy should have been after the rebellion broke out.

Our commander-in-chief relied on his vast experience in foreign relations (he could see Indiana from his Chicago porch!) to reject the advice of virtually everyone else regarding Syria (tip to Instapundit):

Under questioning from the Senate's uber-hawk, Arizona Senator John McCain on Feb. 7, U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta testified that last year he and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey advised President Barack Obama to arm and train those rebels in Syria that the U.S. wants to see in charge once the current regime is toppled. Obama overruled them.

President Obama's Secretary of State and Central Intelligence Agency chief gave him the same advice -- and for the same reasons that Bloomberg View has been supporting this kind of highly targeted U.S. involvement. Obama ignored Hillary Clinton and David Petraeus, too.

Because, you know, our president killed bin Laden.