Obama Arrives in Moscow, His Leadership in Question

Today Obama lands in Moscow to participate in the G-20 summit amid questioning of his ability to lead the world.

The arguments he gave as reasons to attack Syria have not been convincing. Some of the presidents who will take part in the reunion, like host Vladimir Putin, doubt that the U.S. will have evidence to prove that Syria carried out the chemical weapon attack. Others, like Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, oppose an attack without United Nations support. Countries like Argentina condemned the use of the toxic gas but do not think more deaths will solve the problem. They also are asking for U.N. intervention.

Although France has aligned with America, the eventual attack on Syria has created tensions with the United Kingdom, where Prime Minister David Cameron did not get Parliament’s support, and Germany, which is opposed to the attack against Bashar al-Assad, even though it shares Obama’s concern about the use of chemical weapons.

Very few understand why Obama decided to ask for congressional authorization at the last minute — it was not necessary and caused him to lose the momentum for the attack, allowing the Syrian regime to categorize the U.S. only as a threat on paper, according to all of the specialists.

During the summit, Obama intends to reverse the prevailing skepticism.

In a press conference in Stockholm, Sweden, Obama tried to internationalize the need to attack Syria, stating that the credibility of the whole world was at stake:

“I didn’t set a red line. The world set a red line. The United States set a red line.”*

However, his words were not very convincing. Even Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who was at Obama’s side during the press conference, said that Sweden would not invade anyone without U.N. approval.

Obama’s problem is that Russia has vowed to veto any U.N. resolution involving a military attack against Syria. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that a meeting between the two leaders was still possible, even though officially a meeting between Putin and Obama was canceled. But nobody expects Putin to radically change his opinion, and Edward Snowden’s exile there [in Russia] is not helping the situation.

Obama should respond to the tough questions coming from President Dilma Rousseff and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto about the spying that the U.S. undertook in their respective countries.

*Editor’s note: Correctly translated, the following quote could not be fully verified.