OBAMA AND SYRIA: “…AND A MAN IN MY POSITION CANNOT AFFORD TO LOOK RIDICULOUS!”

4/28/13

Much criticism is being directed toward President Obama due to his clumsy handling of the Syrian situation.   The President had previously said that the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime would be a “red line,” presumably tripping more vigorous U.S. action on behalf of the amorphous bands of rebels seeking to seize power in Syria.  (See my 4/11/13 piece, SYRIA:  GROUNDHOG DAY FOR AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY.)   When both the Israelis and our own intelligence sources confirmed that the Assad regime had used chemical weapons against its own population, the President hemmed and hawed, talking about wanting to be very careful before taking further steps toward active military involvement in Syria.   It’s easy to understand, and encourage, the President’s caution; there are those of us who have not forgotten the eagerness of the Bush crowd to get us into the huge military mistakes known as Iraq and Afghanistan.  But the President’s caution looks like pusillanimousness to his enemies and even to objective observers.  What once looked was a red line is starting to fade to a pink line, as some of his critics are fond of saying.

Mr. Obama is indeed looking quite ridiculous at this juncture, but not for the reasons the likes of Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham would have you believe.  The President does not look silly and indecisive because he is not reacting to Mr. Assad’s use of chemical weapons, but because Mr. Obama drew a red line in the first place.   Rather than saying that use of chemical weapons would be the tripwire for further U.S. involvement in Syria, the President should have stated unequivocally that the conflict in Syria is none of our business, that we have no dog in that fight, and that we are not going to get involved in that conflict.   Period.

Why is yours truly so adamant about keeping us out of Syria?   Again, see my 4/11 piece, but also note the arguments of Senator Lindsey Graham, John McCain’s mini-me, on Face the Nation this (Sunday, 4/28) morning.   Mr. Graham is, of course, urging greater involvement in Syria but not “boots on the ground,” no sir.  He instead favors such restrained measure as enforcing no-fly zones, using “cruise missiles” to destroy Syrian airfields, and vague measures to “secure Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles.”  Mr. Graham argues that if we do nothing, some combination of four things is going to happen.

1. Syria will become a failed state.
2. Syria’s chemical weapons will fall into the “wrong hands.”
3. Jordan will be overrun with refugees, threatening the regime of King Abdullah, whom Mr. Graham cites as a “loyal ally.”
4. The Iranians, emboldened by our lack of action, will move more quickly to develop nuclear weapons and foment trouble in the Middle East and beyond.

Well, guess what, Senator?   All those things, with the possible exception of the fourth, either have taken place or are going to take place regardless of what we do in Syria.   We have little to no influence on the parties fighting in Syria and, despite elements of our foreign policy apparatus again having fallen for the usual song and dance about “moderate, pro-Western elements,” we have no friends on either side of the Syrian conflict.   We have plenty of people who will flit around Washington professing friendship with America in order to line their own pockets, but we have no genuine friends in Syria.   We can’t influence the outcome of the war and, even if we could, no outcome will be favorable to us or to broad swaths of the Syrian people.   Syria is a mess and has become a hellhole.  Nothing we do can change that; the only impact of American involvement will be further shedding of American blood and expenditure of American money.   Funny how all this concern about the precarious state of federal finances goes out the window when the War Party sees a conflict in which it can get us involved, but I digress.

One would have thought that intelligent, or even sentient, people would have learned something about the limits of American power and influence from the debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which are failed states, bristling with weapons and breeding legions of terrorists and one of which may very well become an Iranian satellite.  Both of have cost us plenty of American lives and hundreds of billions of dollars we don’t have… and to no good end.

But we don’t learn.   Or, more properly, in a society that seems to equate militarism with patriotism and in which politicians need money from “defense” contractors to sustain their fantasy lives they call careers, we decide not to learn and rush to the next opportunity to prolong conflict, destroy lives, and create enemies.