The knives are out: Panetta eviscerates Obama’s ‘red line’ blunder on Syria.

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday that President Obama damaged U.S. credibility by drawing a “red line” against Syria’s use of chemical weapons and then failed to back it up with military force when Syria crossed the line.
“It was damaging,” Mr. Panetta, who also served as CIA director for Mr. Obama, told Yahoo News.
Mr. Panetta said he supported drawing the red line as a warning to Syrian President Bashar Assad not to use chemical weapons was “the right thing to do” but failing to enforce it was a mistake.
Mr. Obama instead opted for a Russian-brokered disarmament plan after Mr. Assad, tightening his grip on power in the face of a popular uprising and civil war, used chemical weapons to kill as many as 1,400 people.
“I think the credibility of the United States is on the line,” Mr. Panetta said. “It was important for us to stand by our word and go in and do what a commander in chief should do.”
He said Mr. Obama “sent a mixed message, not only to Assad, not only to the Syrians, but [also] to the world. And that is something you do not want to establish in the world, an issue with regard to the credibility of the United States to stand by what we say we’re gonna do.