Another red line

Before President Barack Obama’s news conference on Monday, the idea of us getting directly involved in the Syrian civil war was the stuff of rumors on various intelligence web sites that like to print scary stuff. (AP Photo)

I know the Todd Akin rape gaffe could determine control of the US Senate, but how about the other issue that came up in the president’s surprise news conference on Monday?

He was answering a question about the civil war in Syria — what about the Syrian government’s stockpile of chemical weapons?

“A red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized,” said Obama.

Up to now our policy was not to get involved. We haven’t even sent guns to the rebels for fear some of those rebels are not entirely friendly to us. But now there’s a red line on chemical weapons that could cause us to reconsider — and it’s not just about the USE of these weapons but the threatening movement of these weapons.

“We have communicated in no uncertain terms with every player in the region that, that’s a red line for us and that there would be enormous consequences if we start seeing movement on the chemical weapons front,” said Obama.

Before Monday, the idea of us getting directly involved in the Syrian civil war was the stuff of rumors on various intelligence web sites that like to print scary stuff. Like a report that Iran has pledged to support Syria in return for Syria agreeing to shoot missiles at Israel, should Iran’s nuclear program be attacked. Who knows?

But the red line is now official and it joins the other red line against Iran getting a nuclear weapon, for a total of two red lines — plus a shooting war in Afghanistan, and the 15,000 troops on standby in Kuwait in case of who knows what. I’m just saying — it could be a busy few months.

Dave Ross Commentary