The whiplash of events last week that led to the agreement
with Russia and got us off the hook of a risky military strike against
Syria has me wondering whether President Obama was a chess master doing what he had planned all along or simply a
beneficiary of dumb luck. This is the stuff that books piled upon university courses are made of.
One take away could be that it was neither check mating nor
dumb luck. It was the flexible use of tactics in changing circumstances to support a pragmatic
strategy to reach a stated foreign policy goal.
Many of the goals had
long been enunciated by Candidate Obama: it was no more boots on the ground, a military withdrawal from Iraq, Afghanistan,
and ending military meddling in other middle eastern countries’ business. If use
of military muscle would actually help meet those
goals, it should be limited and with an international effort with backing of our
allies and neighbors of the region affected.
We should work with those who have common national interests at stake in that particular
situation, if not in all issues. It was this stated policy that won Obama the
Democratic Party nomination over Hillary Clinton, who had voted for military
intervention in Iraq.
It was that same
policy for which the GOP had criticized Obama as “leading from behind” or “weakening
American power and its exceptionalism” . That is until
many Republicans about faced, demanding we should not take leadership in Syria, wait for the UN, and not use our military might.
So far, Pres. Obama is being consistent with Candidate
Obama. He is making good on his withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq. An international coalition and limited, but
effective action in oil producing Libya worked
to bring regime change with no long term
use of our boots.
Syria is an even better example of Obama’s goals. It was to be a short term action, though it
kept Congress and Assad guessing if it was just a shot across the bow,
a pin prick, or actually taking out
airfields and means of delivery of chemical weapons. Our missiles off shore
spoke to a meaningful strike. The latter
appears to have gotten both Russia’s and Assad’s attention because that would
have shifted the balance of the civil war to the rebels’ advantage.
Mutual self interest
of Russia and the US was identified. We share a common enemy…al Qaeda like fighters. Neither
of us wanted to see them win the civil war, though the US approach was the
tricky job of arming the moderate rebels with small arms, while neighboring
Sunni nations provided the heavy anti tank supplies.
Russia, with its Caucus problems, was beginning to fear that US military
action might jeopardize Assad and that
the chemical weapons would end up in the wrong hands. A peaceful solution was discussed by Presidents Putin and Obama at the
G20 in the week of September 5.
Sending the issue to
Congress before the G20 provided a delay to give this a chance to work out, though
Obama appeared to miscalculate the intensity of Congress’ opposition and or world opposition to forming a coalition of the
willing. If he had taken any lesson from the UK’s parliamentary vote against
intervention, it was not to take the issue to Congress and to strike immediately instead. That is reason
to believe referral to Congress was a
delaying tactic, giving time to meet face to face with Pres. Putin and
to gain his support for a UN resolution.
While the UN deal does not include military consequences if
Assad fails to comply, the US has made it clear it reserves the right of
unilateral attack and to continue to arm moderate rebels. Our guns are still
cocked and pointed.
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