Obama's Syria Speech: Speak Loudly, and Carry an 'Unbelievably Small' Stick

There was nothing more to say, and indeed President Barack Obama said nothing new to the nation on Syria on Tuesday night. What had once been billed as the closing argument for war on the eve of congressional votes to authorize the use of force became Obama’s rationalization for endorsing a phony diplomatic solution.

Obama referred to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Another Roosevelt, Theodore, said, “Speak softly, and carry a big stick.” Obama’s foreign policy inverts that maxim. The Syria speech evoked the satire of Douglas Adams: “…like a man saying ‘And another thing’ twenty minutes after admitting he’d lost the argument.”