The US has little credibility left: Syria won't change that

[marmar]

The US has little credibility left: Syria won't change that
Obama's argument for intervention is a hollow one: America's use of chemical weapons in Falluja makes that clear

Gary Younge
The Guardian, Sunday 8 September 2013 14.47 EDT

'I created Transjordan," Winston Churchill once boasted, "with a stroke of a pen one Sunday afternoon in Cairo." Take a look at what remains of Jordan 90 years later and you can see how. Straight borders drawn with a ruler carve indifferent frontiers through a complex region with the kind of callous colonial hubris that displayed scant regard for linguistic, ethnic or religious affiliation.

Much of the contemporary turmoil in the Middle East owes its origins to foreign powers drawing lines in the sand that were both arbitrary and consequential and guided more by their imperial standing than the interests of the region. The "red line" that president Barack Obama has set out as the trigger for US military intervention in Syria is no different.

He drew it unilaterally in August 2012 in response to a question about "whether [he envisioned] using US military" in Syria. "A red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilised. That would change my calculus. That would change my equation."

On 21 August there was a chemical weapons attack outside Damascus believed to have been carried out by the Syrian government. That changed both Obama's calculus and his memory. "I didn't set a red line," he claimed last week. I didn't draw it, he insisted, everybody did. "The world set a red line". ........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/08/us-little-credibility-syria-chemical-weapons

[Doctor_J]

1. Unfortunately the same is true for the president

What could have been, if he'd embraced his 2008 voters instead of the Republicans who were soundly repudiated that year. The truth behind this/his debacle will make fascinating reading some day