Krauthammer: Britain Voting Against Syrian Military Action ‘Complete Humiliation for Obama’

August 29th, 2013 7:08 PM

Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer had some harsh words for the White House Thursday.

Commenting on Fox News’s Special Report about the British government’s decision to not take part in a military action against Syria, Krauthammer said, “It is a complete humiliation for the Obama administration.”

CHRIS WALLACE, SUBSTITUTE HOST: In case you joined us late, you may not know what we are talking about when we keep talking about the British Parliament and David Cameron. The Prime Minister, Cameron, brought a resolution, a measure before the British Parliament today that would have authorized the use of force. It was supposed to go to another vote on Tuesday, but the British Parliament voted it down today and Britain has announced, the British government, they will not be part of any military action against Syria. Charles?

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: It is a complete humiliation for the Obama administration. Forget about the merits of what Obama wants to do which I think it’s a bad idea. But let's assume it’s a good idea. This involves the elementary conduct of international diplomacy, trying to get some allies aboard so you don't act unilaterally. So who’s the main ally in the world who’s been with us in every trench for the last 100 years? The British. And now the British have voted against us. The other supposed ally was the French, President Hollande, and now he’s saying we got to wait for the report from the UN inspectors which will be early next week.

So here is Obama and the Democrats who railed against the Bush administration for its supposedly unilateral invasion of Iraq where we had 48 allies for a mission that involved boots on the ground, a real invasion, a real war. And here’s Obama trying to gather an ally or two for a pinprick and he gets nothing. This is just on the basis of thinking ahead, let's say, a week ahead. When they leaked all this information about exactly what we’re going to hit, where we’re going to hit it, what the reasons are and the objectives are, and we’re going to have a coalition of the willing, did nobody actually think to check on the allies? I mean, these are guys who couldn't organize a three-car funeral.