Obama's Proposed Attack On Syria Shrinks And Shrinks

The attack the U.S. is threatening Bashar Assad with for alleged chemical weapons use will now be an "unbelievably small, limited kind of effort." Is America becoming a paper tiger?

When the White House's foreign policy team aren't dissembling or dithering, they can be found fudging, vacillating or prevaricating.

Secretary of State John Kerry, the face President Obama obviously wants defending an increasingly indefensible non-strategy, vowed Monday, "We're not going to war. We will not have people at risk in that way." We will have "a very limited, very targeted, very short-term effort," an "unbelievably small, limited kind of effort."

We're talking small here, folks. As in "don't lose any sleep over it, Bashar."

Then comes U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power being asked repeatedly by National Public Radio Monday, "Would an American strike on Syria be legal?"

She ultimately was allowed to wiggle out of answering, but not before explaining that when Moscow gets behind a terror state like Syria, it becomes "just structurally impossible to get meaningful international action through the Security Council," even in acting against chemical weapons use.

More tellingly, Power observed, "countries are right to bring a healthy skepticism about the use of military force. I think the American people are right to bring that skepticism." And she added this gem: "And believe me, President Obama — over the course of the last 2-1/2 years — has brought that same skepticism."

A president skeptical of the effectiveness of the use of the U.S. military? That sheds some light on why we pulled out of what Obama called the war "we have to win" in Afghanistan — even suggesting that we had to lose the war in Iraq because we needed the resources in Afghanistan. In the end, we lost both wars.

Today, U.S. diplomats are even helping the Taliban on the road back to power.

Well, if the U.S. doesn't have confidence in its own military power, Moscow can throw its weight around in the resulting vacuum. Russia on Monday said it would solve the Syria chemical weapons problem by getting Assad to surrender control of "every single bit" of his chemical arsenal.

The White House instantly dragged former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the White House to claim the idea "was suggested by Secretary Kerry and the Russians," as she called on Congress to authorize Obama's "unbelievably small" attack on Syria.

Is this what President Obama will tell the nation Tuesday evening, that Russia has saved his political skin, and Putin will take care of an alleged chemical weapons-using terror state Moscow has long supported?

The red line the president long ago drew in the first place has been exposed as an election year political ploy masquerading as policy.

Last month, Obama found himself painted into the corner by that red line. It's time for a real Mideast policy based on saving America from terrorism, not saving political face.