Syria: Obama's Right Choice

If I were an American citizen, I would be proud of my country’s president. Barack Obama has shown toughness and clarity in his condemnation of those hundreds of corpses — women and many children — all exterminated in a horrible, cruel and still mysterious way. And he has vowed to do something about it. But instead of running after the chariot of evidence that even his secretary of state has offered him, he preferred to address Congress — senators and representatives — who are currently listening to their citizens. You do not go to war alone, especially to a war that can become massive and global at any moment.

Barack Obama has not shown any signs of being concerned about his allies’ different paths — United Kingdom out, France in, Italy out, Germany out due to elections — which interrupt a so far typical and mandatory path. However, he talked for a long time — 45 minutes, as some kind of extreme consultation and confession, while the world’s TVs were waiting for him in the Rose Garden — with his closest assistant, McDonough, who is “calm and wise,” according to White House experts. In the end, he chose to give citizens some time to communicate with those they elected as their representatives. He also waits for what Congress (in the name of the people) will decide.

It is surprising to many people that Obama has stopped short of his highest prerogative: go to war first and give explanations to his people, allies and history later — hesitant, indecisive and almost a pacifist, as was written about President Carter. If I were Obama I would be proud of this (and I think Obama is). Carter was neither hesitant nor a “pacifist” (in both the good and insulting sense of the term). He was just a reluctant president. He did not go to war while 68 American diplomats were hostages in Iran. He promised to return the Panama Canal while a violent armed conflict, which he soon stopped, was raging, giving away U.S. sovereignty.

Yesterday, The New York Times (Mark Lander from Washington) described Obama as a reluctant president, evoking the title of Mohsin Hamid’s great book. Even in Obama’s case the description is accurate. Barack Obama does not want any peace, nor does he want any war, with dead bodies everywhere. Along this road, without the United Nations and the Carter-like risk of being subjected to hostility and contempt, Obama is trying to lead a half-blind world by himself.