The Very Best of Hands

The commander-in-chief, muscular and robust

I’ve had my say about Syria here and on the home page, as part of PJ Media’s college of columnists, so there’s little to add until the President makes up his mind: to intervene in the Syrian civil war or not? A third course, inaction, would seem more suitable for a man of his unmartial temperament, but the Permanent Bipartisan Fusion Party will have none of that:

One U.S. official who has been briefed on the options on Syria said he believed the White House would seek a level of intensity “just muscular enough not to get mocked” but not so devastating that it would prompt a response from Syrian allies Iran and Russia.

“They are looking at what is just enough to mean something, just enough to be more than symbolic,” he said.

Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up. Over at Bloomberg.com, Jeffrey Goldberg has had enough:

There’s nothing like acting out of an acute fear of mockery to get you mocked, I suppose. Remember “leading from behind”? This quote ranks up there in the did-someone-actually-say-that category. (By the way, I don’t doubt the accuracy of the reporting, I’m just incredulous that someone in a position of responsibility would be so brutally frank.)

“Muscular,” by the way, is one of those words — like “robust” — that Washington policy makers use to describe foreign and defense policies that otherwise might not be mistaken for muscular or robust.

As the saying goes, the country’s in the very best of hands.

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UPDATE: Even Assad’s kid is apparently getting into the act. The utter humiliation of Barack Hussein Obama — and of the country he purports to lead — is now almost complete. Let’s just hope the former Punahou bench-warmer doesn’t take umbrage at trash talk. On the other hand, he does seem to have sensitivity issues…

Related:

Military Officers Warn Against Syria Strike