by Prof. Abraham Ben-Zvi
When U.S. President
Barack Obama decided to strike Syria as a punitive measure, he must have
thought about fellow Democrat Jimmy Carter and his ill-fated
presidency. Carter's helplessness when pro-Khomeini revolutionaries
seized the U.S. Embassy in Teheran and held 53 American diplomats
hostage for 444 days made his entire administration look weak. This also
had a direct impact on his re-election campaign and contributed to his
colossal defeat in the 1980 elections.
It is safe to assume
that the lessons learned from this bungled ordeal have not been lost on
Obama as he deliberates his actions over Syria. Had Obama shied away
from a proper response to Damascus' use of chemical weapons that so
brazenly crossed the red line Obama delineated so clearly only a year
ago, he might have inflicted irreparable harm to his presidency and his
legacy. He would have run the risk of becoming a Carter lookalike,
primarily because he would have shown reluctance and weakness on his
Middle East policy.
Obama may have set the
bar too high by making the use of chemical weapons a trigger for
U.S.-led military action. His statements lacked a single face-saving
caveat that would have allowed him to climb down from that tree. With
mounting and incriminating evidence on display, Obama's credibility is
now on the line.
Although the American
people are very much against any sort of military intervention
(overwhelmingly so), Obama is boxed in and inextricably linked to his
statements from last year. They are essentially binding.
As far as Obama is
concerned, the need to project strength as a determined and
still-relevant world power trumps his basic aversion to military force.
He believes that this approach will restore his image in Moscow, Beijing
and Teheran.
Although one of Obama's
campaign pledges was to pivot from war zones and refocus on
socio-economic issues, the White House has suddenly been thrown into the
Syrian bloodbath without solid support from the general public.
On the one hand, he has to make
sure to preserve his image and prestige in the eyes of friends and
allies. On the other hand, the American people are against going into
another Middle East war. Those two forces can only be overcome thorough a
strategy that focuses on damage control. In a few days, we will find
out whether he has managed to obtain his goals by entering a new, more
successful period, in his presidency.
Prof. Abraham Ben-Zvi
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=5539
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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