Former President Barack Obama said that not bombing Syria was one of most politically courageous decisions he took during his presidency, according to an interview published Monday.
“Well, the hardest issue that I dealt with was always sending our young men and women into harm’s way, our troops,” Obama told Jack Schlossberg last week before accepting the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award. “… But I actually think that the issue that required the most political courage was the decision not to bomb Syria after the chemical weapons use had been publicized, and rather to negotiate them removing chemical weapons from Syria.”
President Obama initially warned Syrian President Bashar Assad that using chemical weapons was a “red line” that should not be crossed. “We have been very clear to the Assad regime — but also to other players on the ground — that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus; that would change my equation,” Obama said in 2012.
“Now, we know subsequently that some remained, so it was an imperfect solution. But what we also know is that 99 percent of huge chemical weapons stockpiled were removed without us having to fire a shot,” Obama told Schlossberg, according to a transcript of the interview on Medium.
“The reason it was hard was because, as president, what you discover is that you generally get praised for taking military action, and you’re often criticized for not doing so,” Obama added. “And it wasn’t a slam dunk, but I thought that it made sense for a variety of reasons for us to see if we could actually try to eliminate the prospect of large-scale chemical weapons use rather than the political expedience of a one-time shot.”
On April 6, President Trump authorized the bombing of a Syrian airfield after Assad launched another chemical attack on its people. “It is in this vital national security interest of the U.S. to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons,” Trump said, after 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired at the Shayrat air base.
“When you kill innocent children, innocent babies with a chemical gas that was so lethal – that crossed many, many lines beyond the ‘red line,'” Trump later said.
Obama also mentioned his decision to send troops to Afghanistan during the interview with Schlossberg. “[T]he first time I decided that we needed more troops in Afghanistan, I made a presentation at West Point. And seeing people younger than you and knowing that many of them would be in a really dangerous situation, that was tough,” he said when asked about the issues that demanded the most courage during his time in office.
“The [Osama] Bin Laden decision was difficult as well, but that one was one where I felt enough confidence in our men and women in uniform and our Navy Seals that once I knew that I could get them back out, I felt like it was worth a shot,” he said.
Obama’s comments were met with a scoff by South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
“What President Obama calls ‘political courage’ – most everyone else calls weakness and poor judgement,” the Republican said in a tweet.
