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It's not about being the policeman of the world, it's still about empire building of influence around the Arabian Oil peninsula as was seen in 1953 with the overthrow of Mossadeq in Persia by the CIA with support of the British. During Obama's first term, Ms Clinton trusted US foreign policy on advisors from Bill Clinton's presidency with a NeoCon signature lacking skills of diplomacy. I've covered this extensively @BooMan in many, many diaries followed by the Syrian crisis. There is not a single starting point for the Syrian civil/sectarian war as it has been raging for more than a decade of US policy of regime change in Syria. See the crisis in Lebanon, influence of Syria (Shia Iran) and Saudi Arabia (Sunni wahhabism and salafism) and the Hariri assassination by a plot of a Sunni militant group. The Saudi regime of King Abdullah had been stirring the sectarian differences in Syria through Wahhabist clerics and funneling funds to mosques and madrasses.

NeoCon policy got a makeover under the pretense of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine invoked to legitimize the 2011 war on Libya and just morphed into ''responsibility to attack'' (R2A) policy for Syria. The so-called red line on the Assad regime had been crossed a number of times and ahead of the G8 conference in June, president Obama came with a hard statement: Syria Has Used Chemical Arms on Rebels, and Crossed a Red Line. The intense diplomatic effort by John Kerry was a welcome change from Ms Clinton. Obama made a irresponsible choice of appointing Susan Rice to the position of National Security advisor, trumping diplomat John Kerry. Both Susan Rice and the new Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power are "humanitarian hawks." With the commitment to attack Syria, this is a first result of that effort.

US Will Be Ousted by Saudi King Abdullah in Middle-East

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Obama's Credibility and Israel's Red Line
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After ...
the case build on Israeli intelligence from IDF Unit 8200;
can't be shared because of security assets in region;
war rhetoric by Peres and Liberman;
got decision from US president to react with force;
credibility on the (red) line;
surprise moment of caution;
the truth starts to manifest itself:
JPost - Weak world response on Syria boosts chance of strong Israeli action on Iran.

Stock of CW and BW was seen as a poor man's option for a nuclear deterrent. Both Syria, Libya and Iraq used this strategy because of Israel's rogue status as the only nuclear power in the region and with no scrutiny by the IAEA. Now Obama is using a new argument for a casus bellum?

'Sapere aude'