Obama's "16 Words:" Syria Cheats on Chemical Weapons Agreement and Everyone But Obama Knows About It!

If George Bush had said something as patently false as this latest Obama whooper in a State of the Union Address the whole country would have heard about it!

Remember in 2003 President George Bush said these famous 16 words in his State of the Union Address: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." Liberals pounced and accused Bush of lying. Next they ginned up the whole Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson affair which went on for years and involved a Special Prosecutor and Grand Jury crippling the Bush White House. Never mind that Plame and Wilson were discredited as partisan hacks or that Bush's statement was actually true. (1,2,3)

Well that was then and this is now. No one seems to care when Obama tells a real whopper or when his Administration is accused of misdeeds. There is no Special Prosecutor and Obama's Department of Justice simply ignores calls for any investigation.

For example, here's what Obama said in his 2014 State of the Union Address: "American diplomacy, backed by the threat of force, is why Syria’s chemical weapons are being eliminated." 16 words. The only problem is that everyone in Obama's Administration knew the words were not true the moment Obama said them. From the New York Times (not Fox News, not Rush Limbaugh):

The United States sharply criticized Syria on Thursday over delays in the timetable for eliminating its chemical weapons, accusing the Syrian government of deliberately stalling their removal from the country to gain bargaining leverage and — in a new complaint — reneging on a pledge to destroy the 12 facilities that produced them.

It turns out that only 4% of Syria's declared stocks of chemical weapons (how much they have not declared is not clear but the weapons are not hard to hide) have been shipped out of the country for destruction at sea. Both the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense have been sounding the warning. Certainly both would have told the White House the statement Obama made on Tuesday was false before he said it. Both State and Defense review relevant portions of the address and provide feedback. How did these 16 words get in?

Then there's this claim about Iran: "As we gather here tonight, Iran has begun to eliminate its stockpile of higher levels of enriched uranium." 18 words. Again, not at all true. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and other top Iranian officials have denied any such concession. Again, the New York Times admits that "Iran retains the technology and material to produce fuel for a weapon for now."

Is Obama so isolated that he believes what he said in the State of the Union speech? Or, is he just lying again? Either way, it's not good news. It means he is as likely to pay the necessary attention to these issues of war and peace as he did to the implementation of ObamaCare. If he lives in a world of fantasy where he believes his words translate into action then we are in for a very bumpy ride these next three years!