The point here is not to vilify [White House spokesman] Joshua Earnest. He does not dissemble as a free agent. He does so on behalf of a president unwilling to say something like the following: ‚Look, I realize what a catastrophe Syria is. It‘s the premier humanitarian abomination of the 21st century. I know that Russia and Iran have enabled a despicable family and its gangster entourage to commit mass murder and state terror. I‘ve read all of the intelligence about Russia deliberately targeting civilian hospitals. I can see the effects that mass migration from Syria is having on our European allies and even on us during this election year. I get it all: a lost generation of Syrian children, people being shelled, strafed, sexually assaulted, and starved to death by their own so-called government. What I want people to understand is that I‘ve had to make the hardest of calls. I think the nuclear agreement with Iran prevented a war and opens a door. I‘m afraid that if I use cruise missiles or supply anti-aircraft weapons to make Assad pay a price for mass murder, Iran‘s supreme leader – who sees Assad as an invaluable agent – will scuttle the nuclear deal. I may be wrong, but that‘s the call I‘ve made. That‘s why I get paid the big bucks.‘
A statement like the foregoing would provide a platform for useful debate. And it would spare Mr. Earnest the trouble of having to offer up excuses and alibis he surely knows are false and misleading.“
(Frederic C. Hof, ehemaliger Berater Barack Obamas für Syrien: „A Bad Defense for a Mistaken Policy“)
