Our president, secretary of state and those who agree with them are fools.­

In the last two weeks they have invoked the need for a military strike in Syria, as a means of maintaining United States credibility.

Credibility, indeed.

Listening to President Barack Obama’s speech Tuesday night it seems credibility means contradicting yourself.

In the first half of the speech President Obama said America’s job is not policing the world, yet he goes on to say we have a long tradition of maintaining global security, and thus must move to strike Syria.

President Obama evoked images of utter horror: children being gassed, lying on the cold ground of a primitive hospital. Anyone with a shred or moral decency feels a shuddering pang when imagining such things.

Yet, Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry’s solution is still an air strike in Syria. For those of you busy reading about boy bands and the exploits of various pop starts, an air strike means a bombing.

He panders to the American people and Congress””two entities that admittedly do not want to act violently in Syria.

I want to believe we have a competent and pragmatic president. I also want to believe said president thinks slightly more of our collective understanding of what constitutes violence and killing children. (Aside: Am I the only person who thought his constant mention of dead children grotesquely macabre, and wholly unnecessary?)

Our president has called upon the American people to whole-heartedly approve of blowing up Syria.

In case he forgot, he should be reminded that human beings (and thus children) happen to live in and around those places.

And that is the strange syllogism: Obama disapproves of gassing people yet approves of dropping gigantic explosives on them. In the midst of this strange fallacy, he is wholeheartedly committed to persuading us to accept a difference between death and maiming by gas and death and maiming by bomb.

How insulting to the collective intelligence of American citizens.

Thus, our president has committed himself to brainwashing us with technicalities.

So, that’s part one of the angering humiliation that the current administration. But wait, there more!

Pres. Obama’s inconsistency regarding his earlier promises of peace, coupled with his refusal to listen to the American body politic, has put his administration in the position of puppet.

Puppet of who? The puppet of the President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

Secretary of State John Kerry makes an off-handed and intentionally smug comment about Syria handing over its weapon to the international community. He says this as though Syrian president Bashar al-Assad would never agree, and suddenly he does!

Well, not suddenly. Not before Putin used the off-handed arrogance of Kerry to show that he is the real influencer of Bashar al-Assad.

With this in mind, it becomes apparent that Obama has played into the proverbial hand of his enemies.

He will not say “No” to a strike, yet he wants approval from the American people.

It’s our leader’s very pride and inability to accept disapproval that has got us involved with unspoken agreements and treaties with arms dealers like Russia, and a madman like Assad.

Let’s hope Pres. Obama’s speech proves as ineffective ”” as ineffective as his arrogance has proven detrimental to our government’s credibility.