Obama War Room: More Fudge, Please

December 28, 2013 Hawaii

JAY CARNEY: Here’s the video of Kerry’s next "Address to the Nation" on Syria, Mr. President.

KERRY: Good evening. Our intelligence agencies are reasonably certain it was Syria that attacked Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, on Tuesday last week with missiles containing sarin gas.

Almost 1.5 million civilian deaths resulted from this wanton act, comparable only to the horrors I personally witnessed Americans committing in Vietnam almost fifty years ago.

I have just spoken to President Obama at his vacation compound in Hawaii.

He asked me to reassure the international community the U.S. will not act unilaterally unless we obtain video of Assad entering launch codes and pushing buttons clearly marked, ´´Sarin--Riyadh.´´

When or if that happens, the president may order our remaining carrier groups to the eastern Mediterranean to conduct limited ´´non-surgical´´ strikes, with targets announced well in advance so that we don’t accidentally hurt Syrians and cause them to undergo surgeries.

I repeat what I’ve said the other six times such attacks have happened since August: this will not stand. We will continue talking with everybody, including the American people, concerning what they think about Syria.

The president has asked me to run a Twitter poll on our options so that uninformed Americans can make their voices heard on something they know absolutely nothing about and for which they care not a whit.

As always, we reserve the right to make our own decisions and act on our own timelines, even if those timelines expire after the next election, or the one after that. Through me, the president asks for your patience and support.

At some point in the near future, he will invite the MSNBC news team to the White House for a candid off-the-record conversation on Syria.

Thank you, and good evening.

OBAMA: A little strong, Jay. Tell him to tone it down.