Ex-Obama officials say hesitation to use force in Syria, emboldened adversaries.

[Mike Mercury]

News of President Trump’s response to the Syrian chemical attack left several Obama administration officials with a sense of frustration and a reluctant feeling of vindication.

by Elizabeth Llorente; Published April 14, 2017

Trump’s decision to act swiftly and decisively, with an airstrike, was what they had wanted to see Barack Obama do in 2013 when he was president and the world learned of the Syrian government’s chemical attack that killed some 1,400 people, including hundreds of children.

But Obama, they say, was too hesitant and too guided by a belief that dialogue was the way to deal with rogue leaders. He preferred the olive branch to the stick in his efforts to appeal to leaders with dangerous instincts, they say.

“I think he left a more dangerous world,” Barry Pavel, senior director for defense policy and strategy on the U.S. National Security Council staff from 2008 to 2010, said to Fox News.

“In Syria, a major mistake was treating it like a humanitarian crisis, when it was a major national security crisis that has caused destabilization on our closest allies in Europe,” Pavel said, “Syria has been a source of terrorist attacks in Europe and the United States, and future attacks. I worry about that very much.”

The world watched the United States’ underwhelming response to rogue moves by the Syrian government and by Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, Pavel said, and got the message that illegal actions would not be met with military actions.

“Potential adversaries know we had the capability, but not the will” to strike out at aggressive actions by certain nations against their neighbors or their own people, Pavel, who is director at Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council, said. “Because they knew that the Obama administration would never use military force for any purpose, they felt free to conduct their coercive actions in the South China Seas, the Russians went into Iran and Syria and North Korea accelerated their nuclear arms program.”

Pavel recalls the resistance he faced when – before the 2013 chemical attack -- he suggested that the U.S. be more forceful in its handling of rogue leaders like Syria President Bashar Assad. While the Obama administration said it did not want to commit hundreds of thousands of troops in a military conflict, Pavel said there were choices between a full-scale commitment and complete inaction.

Gary Samore, who served for four years as Obama’s White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction (WMD), said the Iran nuclear deal – widely criticized by Republicans – has been effective.

That proves, Samore said, that not all adversaries can be handled the same way.

“The constraints that Obama negotiated are holding,” Samore, who is

Both men praised Trump’s military strike against Syria.

“I applaud Trump,” Samore (executive director for research at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University{ said. “It was the kind of strike that Obama was planning – a limited military attack against the airfields in order to deter Assad from carrying out additional chemical weapons attacks, but he decided not to use it. Obama made a huge mistake by saying he was going to go to Congress for authorization, it turned out he did not have the votes.”

“Trump was very smart to do it without congressional support,” Samore said.

Pavel agrees.

“I think the Trump administration is putting the world on notice,” he said. “The U.S. can use military force to achieve particular goals without getting mired in a protracted conflict.”

Michael McFaul, Obama’s ambassador to Russia, said in an interview with the New York Times that the former president’s penchant for a kinder, gentler approach to adversaries was counterproductive.

Pavel says there is no one-size-fits-all answer to dealing with adversaries.

Elizabeth Llorente is Senior Reporter for FoxNews.com

[JRD77VET]

for the President with balls

[OddBall]

Originally Posted by JRD77VET

for the President with balls

[6spdC6]

A normal move for obunghole, he has a good track record of doing things wrong!

Course the bottom line is obunghole is a card carrying muzzie and will do as little as possible in hurting HIS people!

[Jeff '79]

I just hope that POS in N Korea fk's up and we can finally put that issue to rest.

[Broken Wind]

I don't need a former gov't official to tell me that. Common sense told me that years ago.

I agree with LTC Raph Peters...obama is a puzzy.

[Fasglas]

[Bill]

[boracayjohnny]

From the files of, "Whoda thunk it". A pushover gets his milk money taken.

[mrvette]

Originally Posted by 6spdC6

A normal move for obunghole, he has a good track record of doing things wrong!

Course the bottom line is obunghole is a card carrying muzzie and will do as little as possible in hurting HIS people!

110% correct......

[PLRX]

[Mike Mercury]

[Dan Dlabay]

It's about time that we have a president who will let the Military do it's job.

[Mike Mercury]

“In Syria, a major mistake was treating it like a humanitarian crisis, when it was a major national security crisis that has caused destabilization on our closest allies in Europe,” Pavel said, “Syria has been a source of terrorist attacks in Europe and the United States, and future attacks. I worry about that very much.”