George Will Slams 'Reluctant President' Obama for Syria Hesitation

Discussing President Obama’s Syrian intervention, columnist George Will said on ABC’s “This Week”:

“Napoleon said, ‘If you start to take Vienna, take Vienna.’ That is, don’t be tentative, whatever else you do, and don’t be tardy. General McArthur said every military debacle can be explained by two words: Too late. Too late to discern the threat, to prepare for the threat, to respond to the threat.”

“This intervention in another nation’s civil war with sectarian overlays and ethnic complications was announced not by the president, not in conjunction with Congress, but by the deputy national security adviser. This is obviously a reluctant president who now has himself in a competition with the Russians who are all in supporting the other side.”

“The president said Assad lacks legitimacy, and Assad must go. So the negotiations are to negotiate Assad’s departure from power? I don’t think he’s interested.”