Early Thursday morning Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Geneva to meet with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in order to discuss Russia’s proposal to remove chemical weapons from Syria.
Hopefully this move will relieve Syrian chemical arms and put them into international hands.
President Barack Obama has recently stated that he will post-pone any effort to lead a military strike against Syria despite the backing of a majority of the democratic party including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
A week ago Obama seemed to be all guns a blaze for military intervention but now he has sent Kerry to discuss a compromise. Quite a drastic change of heart for the President, what has happened to him? Did he Google the potential death toll if a bombing were to take place? Has Obama got cold feet on the eve of a potential war? Or perhaps there were just too many angry tweets from right-wing voters?
Senator McCain believes the delay is a tactical delay. He insists that if talks with Russia break down it will increase the strength of his argument to convince Congress to provide military intervention.
McCain has supported the idea of an American military force in Syria but has asserted that more would need to be done. He has praised Obama for appealing to the humanity of the American people with the goal of garnering public support for an intervention.
CIA have just announced that they have been delivering small arms to Syria for “weeks” whereas Russia have continuously supplied arms to the Syrian government. If the United States really intends to help the Syrian people, why haven’t we lived up to our initial promise of weapons that match their oppressor’s efforts?
Well Assad’s regime has pretty powerful friends; Putin and Jinping. A military strike on Syria might put us in the dog house with Russia and China, two of our biggest allies. I doubt that an attack will warrant a counterattack from our “friends” overseas but there could be some tension on the international stage.
Syrian intervention has been a pressing issue for weeks. Will we or won’t we? Can we or should we?
Obama seemed to be facing the final hurdle in seeking congressional approval but then Putin decides to offer a diplomatic solution. Wait, Russia are the diplomatic ones in all of this? I guess the President was compelled to hear out Putin’s plea. So what is the hold up and why the game of cat and mouse?
Well, if the government decides to take military action against Syria and dismantle the regime, who will take power? The rebels aren’t necessarily fighting as a solid unit so there will be many factions coming out to take control thus surely leading into more madness. If history has taught us anything about toppled governments is that the government to follow will probably be worse and come to power through violent means. Cough*, cough* Stalin’s Russia.
An alternative option would be to appoint leaders of the country but that has bit us in the butt elsewhere in the Middle East.
Another viable option that Sen. McCain has put forth is too oversee the implement of democracy in Syria. This would take place over a few years and require Soldiers on the ground. Wait, this sounds familiar? Oh, yes, same thing we did in Iraq. That went well during Bush Jr.’s time.
As with any country feeling the perils of the Arab Spring there is no easy solution on the road to becoming a prosperous nation free of oppression. Obama appears to be in a lose lose situation. If he attack the Syrian government we must live with the responsibility and bare the consequence of our actions. If we stand idly by and do nothing we must live with our conscious as we watch the innocent slaughtered from afar.
This only reaffirms that the Presidency is the hardest job in the world. Good luck Barack.
