Tyrants and terrorist are getting exactly what they expect from Obama. Everyone knows he is a wimp. Everyone except Bibi.

"O" had no credentials, no prior achievements, nothing is known about his background, in brief, he was the perfect "Manchurian Candidate". He has an arcane, magic power over the Marxist radical left who were longing for a Stalinesque new leader who could invigorate the masses, - so when he said: "We're the one we're waiting for"! (quote) He became an instant success for half of America. Behind of the facade he's not a learned, cultured man, who is well versed in international politics but merely a teleprompter reading "big talker" from nowhere in Chicago. He knows his limitations - luckily! -namely that he's no match for the experienced, professional leaders like Putin and the Chinese and a missteps on his part could lead to tragic, worldwide conflagration. So he's now backing off because he's smart enough to know he's not suited for the international scene: he's a "community organizer", and nothing more. His acolytes will praise him as the "wisdom of their Dear Leader" but everybody else, sagacious people will get the message that he has blinked.

...matter with regard to violations of human morality and national interests as he, by himself, defined them, why should one trust he will ever be willing/able to stand by any of his other "red lines" that he announced to the American public and the rest of the world? One wonder: Is "leading from behind" has replaced the term "appeasement"?

Blinked my rear end. Seeking Congressional approval is the smartest thing he can do under the circumstances. People in the U. S. are not lining up for gas masks. In Israel they are. Perhaps Israel ought to strike first. After all, Israel is much more likely to be the recipient of a chemical attack than the U.S.

With Obama showing the world that he has no resolve Israel is now entirely on its own when confronting Iran. The U.S. Congress will not vote to authorize force against Syria and will send a clear signal to Assad, Putin, and Iran that America is a paper tiger. America will be seen as weak and all the enemies of both Israel and America will be strengthened and emboldened. I voted for Obama and am deeply disappointed at how he has weakened America throughout the world. Israel is on its own in its fight to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. America today is a not a superpower but instead is a country where no one will stand up to the tyrants and thugs of this world. I thank God as a Jew that this is not 1940 because with this lack of leadership from America I would not be alive today and there would be no Israel. It is sadly not just Obama. The American public wants no part of American involvement in Syria or Iran, no matter who is our President. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

For the first time, in long time, I salute you sir. Well done, well said piece. He blinked, he is worthless as a leader except on street corners rabble rousing in his community.

Obama's credibility with Assad, Putin, and their cohorts all over world just went down the toilet. He will be seen as a paper tiger, and unfortunately they are right. What does that mean for Israel? They're screwed.

Obama should have acted with decisiveness immediately. A strong, quick, hard immediate strike is something Baby Assad and Co. understand and respect. A strike 3-4 weeks down the pike looks lame, and can be used as propaganda that disassociates it with the chemical weapons. Let us not forget that many Syrians support Assad simply because they fear Al Qaeda's involvement with rebel fattens, which are splitter many ways. Assad will exploit this support and the US will be the bad guy, not the good guy in the eyes of Syrians who already fear the unknown. What is also important is that the Republicans have blatantly used this situation to knead under the president's authority. I am no Obama lover, but frankly, if the Bush Admin was in office they would be offering him carte blanche to do whatever he wanted. Political gain has no place in this situation, yet it is present. I will be taking notes for the mid term elections. That said, this is another fine example of Obama's failure to become a true leader. Obama has become the worst president in history and that is aging something considering Jimmah Carter the peanut brain loser anti-Semite is in the running. Obama betrayed Mubarak. He couldn't handle Karzai. He allowed Putin to pantywaist him. He hung Cameron out to dry. I believe Nicolas Sarkozy was very right when he lectured Obama on being naive during his first trip abroad shortly after his first election. What did Obama do? He pouted. Obama needs to either surpass us with a mid night strike TONIGHT, or rest assured he is toast--and so is American stature all over the world. Thanks, for nothing.

Obama looked them straight in the eye and told them that he does not plan to send gentile kids to die for Zion.

How could you trust US promises after this fiasco. How bungling? Israel could never believe the statement that the US won't let Iran get Nuclear weapons. Also, to say this isn't " time sensitive" , tell that to the Syrian children that were just burned or killed by chemical weapons last Monday. We are seeing the US made into a paper tiger. .

they reside in Mecca & Medina.

means "no baytzim." Since 9/11/2001, the West has been pandering to and placating Islam; a fiasco that could have been avoided if, instead of hosting the Bin Laden family out of the US, George W. Bush had put the HAMMER onto the muslim nations on 9/12/2001.

No one's stopping Israel from attacking Syria so it's a little pathetic for some Israelis to incessantly whine that Obama isn't doing something that has HUGE risks. Awfully easy to berate others for not taking risks that you yourself aren't taking, isn't it? The author is particularly prone to this cowardice as he regularly makes these grand pronouncments about what the US should/shouldn't do while Israel sits on the sidelines. More evidence, if it's needed, of what a nation of pus$ies you are.

Obama and his political operatives...are making strategic decisions that involve the world's most dire consequences.....laughing about it.....then agreeing to forget about it. What were we thinking? Free wheeling and golfing.... is our job! Talk softly...and carry a nine iron. As the Labrador retriever chases his tele prompter tail....Rome burns.

President Obama is unquestionably one of the most articulate, eloquent, hypnotically mesmerizing orators of the post Winston Churchill era. While he lacks the vocabulary of Adelai Stevenson, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and Abba Eban, he is able to use neighborhood jargon to electrify the masses, most of whom are neighborhood residents. However, oh my goodness, he is far from a man of determined action. Let us bask in his rhetoric and not expect brave, courageous and bold initiatives. He is not Wyatt Earp, marshal of Tombstone!!! He is Barack Hussein Obama, President of the United States !!!

don't feel like saving the world. This is a sure way to keep American public out of the international scene, while Powers of Darkness take over, slowly but surely. Whether it is done on purpose (the Manchurian-conspiracy) or out of sheer stupidity & amateurism makes no difference: the outcome will be the same: hundreds of years of New Dark Ages.

Im not sure Russia and China want heavily Armed Islamic States or a nuclear Proliferation that they cannot control.Afterall they are closer to the middle east Geographically nuclear fall out will hit them first.And they have large Islamic nations on their borders The USA has Catholic Christians and Evangecalism is spreading there.

The POTUS did the right thing in creating a democratic show of responsibility and hopefully, unity. However, the American Congress are so stupid, they don't know that he put the ball in their court. They didn't convene immediately as they should have, but instead, sat around making idiotic and impotent statements, making the POTUS look weak and foolish. These representatives are so impotent, they need their own drawers changed by the people. NOT A CLUE! Morons.

The US is not always going to act in Isreals interests, although most of the time it will. However, there is nothing wrong with a President follow his country's legal mandates. And the real message this sends in fact is if your nuclear you will be bombed. It isnt in the cards for Syria but if I were Iran that would be top of the to-do list!

To al-nusra/al-Qaeda in Syria? How about if it looks like you're losing you can always con the US to do some bombing for you to even the score? Last I heard there is 20something% support by Americans for military action in Syria. If the legislators don't support Obama and he goes ahead with a strike, he could be impeached or face a military Coup just like his buddy Mr Morsi.

Obama has done the following: *Set a red line *Didn't respond in a timely manner when the red line was crossed. *Later, declared the response was coming and informed Assad when and where the response would take place. *Backed down. I don't know if backing down was ultimately good for America or not, but I do know that I could have done at least as "good" a job as Obama, and I am not inexperienced; I have watched at least 6 seasons of "The West Wing".

Hasn't that been Obama's goal all along? I don't think he blinked. I think he knows exactly what he is doing.

Obvama should never have set a "red line" in the first place and once his "red line" was crossed he should have ignored it. If Obama had gone ahead he would be impeached and removed from office by the end of the year. Americans are in NO MOOD for any more warfare, PERIOD. Now Congress will tell him no and he can get on with life. Americans just do NOT care if anyone but Americans get gassed. Why Israelis are surprised that Americans might simply turn their backs on the ME is a mystery to me. In the 200+ years the US has existed, it has screwed over EVERY ONE of the "friends" it has had. In many cases, multiple times. Remember that until WW1 the US simply did not care how many non-Americans died and only entered WW1 and WW2 reluctantly. What part of "no more war" and "spend all our money at home" is so hard to understand about Americans?

have my doubts as to your domicile: are you sure it's not Middle-Earth? Explaining "stuff" to you would be pointless, I am convinced about that.

This One has not produced anything but dissapointments !. Arn.Sweden.

This was Obama's first rational foreign policy decision since seizing power in 2008. Impossible as it is to believe, an Obama attack on Syria would have been even more disastrous than his foreign policy to date. Remember: Obama was not an innocent bystander who was suddenly horrified by a chemical attack. He was and is the enabler for the Al-Qaida forces fighting Assad, flooding them with weapons, intelligence and training (and probably more). He was the main obstacle to a negotiated settlement by demanding Assad's surrender as a precondition. Now Obama can decide what he wants. Does he want the US to become a branch of global Jihad and eliminate Christians from the Levant? He can launch a full attack on Assad, Hezbollah and the Christians in a month. Does he want to degrade Assad and Jihad? Flood Syria with weapons so they keep killing each other for the next five years, just stop giving them weapons that threaten America. Does he want to save lives despite the pressure from his Saudi masters? Work together with Putin to divide Syria and Lebanon into multiple ethnically pure ministates, including population transfers. Does he want to protect American interests? Dump Peres, Netanyahu, Abbas and Livni and the idea of "palestine" and instead give 100% support to Dannon and Elkin in making a safe Israel, for America's sake.

Military hostilities with Iran should start on September the 19th.