Israel Matzav

No good options in Syria

President Obama's insistence on international backing for every move he makes has left the US with no good options in Syria after the Russian and Chinese Security Council vetoes ten days ago. Professor Barry Rubin sums up the lesson that everyone but Obama has hopefully learned.

At the same time, the Syria issue shows how the Obama Administration has tied itself up into a hundred knots. For centuries, diplomats of powerful countries have known that you don’t enter into a coalition unless you absolutely cannot avoid it or, even better, you control it. Otherwise, your interests get ground down by those of others.

Multilateralism has its costs. With the Obama Administration leading from behind and stressing the need for a UN consensus to do anything, it is now stuck with a passive stance on the Syrian civil war. On the Iran sanctions issue, it bought off Russian and Chinese opposition by the simple expedient of, in practice, exempting them from observing the sanctions. That won’t work on Syria. Hence, deadlock. America can’t be a great power if the Russians, Chinese, and others (notably Turkey) are able to yank out the power plug any time they want.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Syrian uprising

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:45 AM