OBAMA ENGAGES IN DOUBLETALK ABOUT "RED LINE"

NEW YORK TIMES:

Obama Says ‘World Set a Red Line’ on Chemical Arms

STOCKHOLM — President Obama declared on Wednesday that the confrontation with Syria over chemical weapons was not a personal test for him but for Congress, the United States and the world as he worked to strengthen support at home and abroad for a punitive strik

Opening a three-day trip overseas at a delicate moment for his presidency, Mr. Obama challenged lawmakers and allies to stand behind his plans for a cruise missile attack on the government of President Bashar al-Assad in retaliation for what the Obama administration has concluded was a chemical attack that killed 1,400 people in the suburbs of the Syrian capital, Damascus, last month.

“I didn’t set a red line,” Mr. Obama said during a news conference here in Stockholm. “The world set a red line.”

But back in April, 2013 from Time Magazine:  "The White House confirmed Thursday that intelligence reports indicate “with varying degrees of confidence” that the Syrian regime has used the chemical weapon sarin, a possible sign that Syria has crossed President Barack Obama‘s “red line” that would change U.S. policy towards the war-torn country.  In the article Obama is quoted as using the term "red line" several times.  i leave it to the reader to Google the term "red line"+Obama and see that he is reported to use the term repeatedly.

So, either Obama or Time Magazine (and other sources) is lying. Clearly, unless there is a kind of media conspiracy, it is Obama who is a liar. I guess this is simply a case of doubletalk that we have come to associate with politicians.  As pointed out in another post, the Nobel Prize Winner, Harold Pinter, argued that political language is inherently deceitful and has nothing to do with the truth.  He contended that it is only in art that one can find veracity. I think  Pericles and a very few others are the exception that proves Pinter's rule.