In re-reading the January New Yorker interview that President Obama gave, it’s startling not only because the president’s assessment of the Syria situation was so miscalculated, but because it was so confidently delivered.
As writer David Remnick tells it, when he asked Obama if he is haunted by events in Syria — presumably the deaths of hundreds of thousands over two years — “an indignant expression crossed his face.”
“I am haunted by what’s happened,” the president said. “I am not haunted by my decision not to engage in another Middle Eastern war.”