At a November 14 press conference, the president was asked about the “learning curve on becoming president” and how long it took him to feel “fully at ease in the job.” The president replied (emphasis added):
About a week ago I started feeling pretty good. (Laughter.) No, look, I think the learning curve always continues. This is a remarkable job. It is like no other job on Earth. And it is a constant flow of information and challenges and issues. That is truer now than it has ever been, partly because of the nature of information and the interconnection between regions of the world. If you were President 50 years ago, the tragedy in Syria might not even penetrate what the American people were thinking about on a day-to-day basis. Today, they’re seeing vivid images of a child in the aftermath of a bombing. There was a time when if you had a financial crisis in Southeast Asia somewhere, it had no impact on our markets; today it does.
Just this week, Josh Earnest defended the president’s Syria policy, saying that the president “certainly makes no apologies” for his response:
President Obama has — and Secretary Kerry — have been at the leading edge of a tireless effort to try to bring that violence to an end, or at least reduce it enough that humanitarian assistance can get to those people that need it the most. And this administration and this President certainly makes no apologies for that tenacious pursuit of the kind of solution that would bring relief to the suffering people of Aleppo.
The president’s National Security Council met also this week on the counter-ISIL campaign, and issued this statement on Syria:
The President also received an update on the unfolding human tragedy inside Aleppo and the terrible violence carried out by the Asad regime with the backing of Russia and Iran. He directed his team to take all steps, in concert with allies and partners, to deescalate the violence, push for humanitarian access, and for an opportunity for those trapped in the besieged city to be allowed a safe egress, if desired.
President Obama’s secretary of state, John Kerry, has repeatedly called the situation in Syria the “largest humanitarian disaster since World War II.”
