After more than four full years in office, the Obama administration is still acting like amateurs. Perhaps a more accurate tag would be the Obama Pathetic Hour.

This time, it’s Syria. Watching his State Department deal with a problem is like watching one of those squishy suburban parents warning their kid for the umpteenth time with a creeping ultimatum “Don’t you dare go by that kid. Put that sand down. Don&#146t you pour that on his head. Stop pouring sand on that boy’s head! Brush that sand off his head! Say you&#146re sorry. Don’t you walk away from me.” You begin to realize the parents are less inclined to discipline their child than they are to create running commentary on everything their little brat does. It’s their way of calling attention to it, in hopes that another parent comes up and offers them some help.

And so it is with the Syrian red line: the Obama administration wanted everyone to know they would not stand idly by like they did with Iran&#146s Green Revolution. “Um…okay, but first there had to be evidence that Assad was doing bad things to the Syrian people. No, we mean really bad things. No, even worse. No…worse like chemical weapons. No, we mean a lot of chemical weapons. Okay, but we need more proof. Maybe more proof.” And so on.

Now the President once again looks like a total idiot, which is not terribly surprising because he never made a secret of how much he hates this foreign policy stuff. Foreign policy issues continually expose how badly the Democrats manage things; at least on domestic issues, they can hoodwink 51% of the weapon for a few weeks.

What the President should have done was declare Syria an open civil war, and that while the United States deplores the actions of the Assad régime, we will not become entangled in an internal struggle. Then you throw some platitudes out that if the conflict expands over Syria’s border to any of our allies, we may be forced to take decisive action.

This way, Obama would have been consistent with what he did in Iran, and would also be able to point to Libya as an example of the United Nations requesting assistance or something. Precedence exists to do nothing in such a case; the United States has been ignoring Tibet for decades, for example, and that’s technically not a civil war but an invasion. Interestingly, many Democrats and Republicans would support our staying out of Syria.

But there was an election going on, and the President was taking deserved hits for Iran, Libya, and…well…Libya. He had to create some sense that his foreign policy wasn’t in free fall, and talking tough about Syria seemed like a safer bet.

Things got worse somehow in Syria, and now the President is being called on it. He should have shown some consistency, but by talking tough earlier he exposes how weak he really is.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.