RUSH: I tell you again, you know, Obama with his red line and huffing and puffing all last week, “I’m gonna go in there and I’m gonna do what’s necessary! Human lives are at stake! Human lives are on the line. He’s gassing his own people. We can’t allow that. Oops! I’m gonna take a walk around the White House for 45 minutes, and I’m gonna decide, ‘You know what? It doesn’t matter! I don’t have to do it right now.

“‘I’m gonna wait for the Republicans to give me a congressional use-of-force authorization. Yeah, that’s what I’m gonna do. Even though I don’t need to it, I’m gonna wait for the Republicans to do it so we can appear to be putting forth a united front.'” Do you think he cares about a united front? What he wants is, he can’t lose either way. If the Republicans don’t give him authorization, don’t vote for the use of force, he can then not do anything about Syria and blame the Republicans for being heartless, mean-spirited, willing to let people get nerve gassed.

He can say, “You know what? If the guy killing his own people isn’t Saddam, the Republicans don’t care.” They’ll come out with, “Yeah, if Bashar had attempted to assassinate George H. W. Bush, then they’d do it.” No, no, no. They’ll bring all of that stuff out of the past. Obama can’t wait to blame the Republicans for letting the people of Syria be nerve gassed. Can’t wait. I mean, you talk about a great leader? Way to nullify whatever negatives there are on health care going into the 2014 midterms!

That’s what he cares about. Now, if the Republicans grant him the use of force and he does it, then he’s a great leader. “He put together his coalition. He did all these wonderful things! He overcame the partisanship. He’s a great guy!” He can’t lose here. He’s got the Limbaugh Theorem as an option. The Messiah, great unifier, brings everybody together. The Republicans who won’t agree with him on anything were made to understand by Obama that this human rights issue could not be ignored.

So he can’t lose here, and I’m just telling you: It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that the rebels are doing this and — like Bodansky says here — that the regime is aware of it.

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RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, I need to make a distinction on something I just said. When I said that Obama can’t lose either way he goes, I shoulda qualified that, because what I meant was as far as the way the media will report it, he can’t lose. But the fact of the matter is, he looks like a gross incompetent here. Obama’s being laughed at by our enemies around the world. They’re astonished.

I guarantee you, our enemies cannot believe how easy they have it. They cannot believe this. They’re thrilled, and I think most people in this country… I don’t now if it’s “most.” Outside the low-information crowd, I think people are aghast. I think people look at this and they see Obama as a total screw up and out of his league and incompetent in this area, but the media will never say that. They’re gonna cover for him no matter what.

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RUSH: Now, look, folks, don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying that Assad’s a good guy by any stretch. He’s a dictator. Don’t misunderstand anything that I’m saying here. I want to go to the sound bites here, and we’re gonna get to your phone calls in this segment, I promise, if you’re on hold. I appreciate you doing that, and I appreciate you being there. But this is embarrassingly incompetent.

When I say that he can’t lose either way, I’m talking about the way the media will cover for him and report this. But this is dangerous, this level of incompetence and buffoonery. Can I ask you a simple question? What are we talking about? We’re talking about launching some sort of military act as reprisal, right? We have a guy using chemical weapons. Why in the hell are we talking about it publicly?

Why are we talking about the details of it?

Why are we talking about when, where, how, what? That alone proves that this is political, as everything Obama and the Democrats do is political. It’s designed to advance their agenda. If you’re really serious about taking Assad out, if you’re really serious about ending this horrible series of events happening, you just do it. Do we not have teams of people capable of going in there under the cover of darkness and getting this done after the fact as we did with Saddam?

Man! Israel never talks about this stuff before they do it. They just go do it. But the fact that we’re talking about it to this degree… You’ve got Boehner up there, “I support the president in this!” Now we have McCain out there, “I support the president and this!” I mean, this guy, folks, is a rank amateur. The enemy cannot believe that this guy’s telegraphing everything he’s gonna do, that he’s doing, what he’s doing and how he’s doing it. I guarantee you…

This guy’s president of the United States. When he comes into office, it’s 2009, and he assumes office. By virtue of that alone, they’re on alert, they’re worried. We can do whatever we want anywhere, any time. We can project power the likes of which the world doesn’t know, doesn’t see, has never seen. They have to respect that. This guy in charge of it? They can’t believe it, and I’m gonna tell you something.

Most of the people in this country are watching this, think they’re watching buffoonery, and they’re embarrassed by it. Red lines and all this? I mean, this is grade school bully kind of stuff here. “Well, you cross that line, I’m gonna really get mad,” and the guy crosses it. “All right, now you’ve really made me mad! If you keep doing that, I’m gonna put another video producer in jail. I’m gonna really get tough with you,” blah, blah, blah.

But we don’t do anything. All of these Republicans signing on to this are participating in this fecklessness, and they’re promoting this incompetence, and I’m sure they’re doing this for their own political calculations as well. But we’ve got a presidential foreign policy here that is incoherent, and the last thing the Republicans need to be doing is signing on to it. Sorry. I don’t mean to be yelling and scaring 25-year-old girls — and yes, they’re “girls” if they’re afraid of me. They’re not yet women.

But I’m telling you, I don’t know why the Republicans want to sign onto this kind of incoherent, inconsistent, really risky and unpredictable plan. We don’t know what Susan Rice is gonna decide tomorrow if she wants to do. We don’t know what Valerie Jarrett’s gonna decide that she wants to do after Susan Rice decides something, and then Samantha Power might show up for work and decide she wants to do something.

Then Obama might say, “You know, what? I’m tired of playing Spades. I want to get in on this, too!” Why do we want to back that? I don’t understand why the Republican Party is not taking advantage of every gift and opportunity here to distinguish themselves against this, to draw the line of distinction, to contrast them. Why this full-speed-ahead dive over the cliffs to be joined up with this?