Obama’s Syria – Red Line And Force

Syrian Flag

So, it’s come down to this:

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration says the U.S. is open to a United Nations resolution that does not include the threat of military force against Syria if the government fails to surrender its chemical weapons.

That is what we call Game, Set and Match.

Described here:

The threat of force was never something the Security Council, where Russia and four other countries have veto power, was going to pass. Nevertheless, the LA Times describes the development as “indication of the White House’s weak hand in the unfolding negotiations between world powers.”  John Kerry and his Russian counterpart have been negotiating a deal for Bashar Assad to surrender his chemical weapons to international control ever since the secretary of state off-handedly identified that as an unlikely diplomatic solution to the situation. The Russians seized on the perceived misstep and the UN resolution will include whatever arrangement Russia and the US manage to strike.

Why is the United States in the role of chemical weapons monitor of the world? Barack Obama insists it wasn’t him that drew the red line for war (a kind of “Who Killed Davey Moore?” moment), it was the world. The president claims international law demands he (on behalf of the world?) act. Yet, in fact, none of the existing international law on chemical weapons applies in this case. The president’s red line is his alone, his arguments to a non-applicable (or even non-existent) international legal regime notwithstanding. The UN does, under its charter, have the authority to act in some way on the human rights violations in Syria, but the Security Council has to act with at least the apathy of its five veto-wielding members, the US, Russia, China, the UK, and France. The Obama Administration’s newfound willingness to drop the non-starter that the threat of force is at the UN should mean it’s ready to meander away from a very much self-made crisis. John Kerry, it seems, has already turned his attention to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, his other pet project.

We elected an “Occupy Wall Street” committee member as President.  It’s really not his fault, rather, it’s ours.

 

5 responses to “Obama’s Syria – Red Line And Force

  1. Make no mistake, as much as I oppose it, I bet Obama will use force even if Congress does not approve it, and even if the UN doesn’t (no one thought the UN ever would anyway, thanks to Russia and China – they didn’t approve Iraq force either, Russia worked against the US on that). So you’d be mistaken to think that the Obama administration has ruled force out. I hope they don’t go that route and the agreement reached is good enough to satisfy them, but I am convinced there is a strong desire in the Administration to hit Syria hard.

    • LOL! You’re forgetting the lessons of Iraq. Obama can’t just fire the tomahawks where and whenever he likes once those (Russian) human shield inspectors get their boots on the ground to shore-up Putin’s Tehran-to-the-Mediterranean shiny new local hegemony. Barack is already talking about a six-month timetable without knowing where anything is! Clueless. It would take them years to do anything similar stateside. If Putin plays this right, they could have the whole area “cleaned up” by, say, 2025 or so…

      • [[[WASHINGTON – The U.S.-Russian plan for the removal or destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons, hailed as a diplomatic breakthrough just days ago, appeared to run into trouble Wednesday as the Obama administration backed off a deadline for the Syrian government to submit a full inventory of its toxic stockpiles and facilities to international inspectors.]]]

        http://networkedblogs.com/PbKrB

        • The U.S.-Russian plan for the removal or destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons, hailed as a diplomatic breakthrough just days ago, appeared to run into trouble Wednesday as the Obama administration backed off a deadline for the Syrian government to submit a full inventory of its toxic stockpiles and facilities to international inspectors.

          Interesting; I’ll have to check out the story.

          But yes. The Obama “victory” is going to quickly fade and the result will be a legitimate Assad. If we are ever exposed as having aided the rebels, Assad will just claim that we broke the spirit of the agreement.

          He is now the legitimate regime and has leverage on the rebels.

          • Obama is already paving way to sell arms to the rebels. This is now a proxy war between the US and Russia thanks to Obama and Kerry.

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