Bashar al-Assad has more lives than a cat. Maybe that's because the Syrian dictator isn't as impressed as our press corps by a Harvard Law degree.
Assad has long been warned by the Obama administration that the full wrath of the United States would fall upon him if he ever used chemical weapons. Indeed, the president spoke of a "red line," declaring that chemical weapons would be a "game-changer" that would carry "enormous consequences" and draw America into action.
Yet the ophthalmologist from Damascus knew better. What would happen if he used some of his vast stores of sarin gas on civilians? We now have the answer: nothing.
It's been more than a week since the White House announced that Syria used chemical weapons — and Obama's still dithering. We should not be surprised. That red line was never meant to stop Assad from acting. It was Obama's way of making sure he would never have to act, by pushing the problem out to the future.
In this way, the red line became a warrant for Assad to murder as many of his own citizens as he pleased, just as long as he shelved his chemical arsenal.
But it turns out you can't count on dictators. The world now knows Assad has used chemical weapons. And the world wants to know if Assad's calculation is right: that Obama's threat was never more than a convenient political bluff.
Never mind that by staying out of this fight for so long, America today has fewer good options. If Obama does not intervene, no one will ever take his threats seriously — least of all the Iranian mullahs seeking a nuclear weapon. They are watching Syria with keen-eyed delight.
Your move, Mr. President.
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