U.S. v. Syria : Russian President Valery Putin Puttin’ A Foot Forward & Offering Obama A Good Reason To Wait
Michael Matthew Bloomer, August 31, 2013
“The G20 is a good forum for discussing the Syria problem, so why not take advantage of this?”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish Weekly, August 31, 2013
The foolish common wisdom making the rounds everywhere one looks or reads asserts that any U.S. military action against Syria must – absolutely must – occur before President Obama’s arrival in Sweden this Wednesday on his way to Russia’s St. Petersburg for the G20 summit on Thursday and Friday. This belief almost universally held by American media is in Jeremy Bentham phrase “nonsense on stilts.”
There is no compelling reason whatever to strike Syria, if at all, before Wednesday. In fact, there are compelling reasons to wait, and, as Putin suggests, use the G20 as an opportunity to convince doubters and to rally believers. Moreover, the UN chemical weapons inspectors team will have more information regarding the nature of the chemical weapons used and, most importantly, their possible provenance (even though the administration claims disinterest in the weapons inspectors’ conclusions or, moreover, in the UN itself).
Although we know the administration claims there will be no one-on-one meeting between the Presidents, we know disinformation when we hear it. Off the record meetings between and among attendees both high and low are regularly arranged at the G20. Obama will likely meet, for example, with Britain’s David Cameron, if only to commiserate about legislative bugbears. The French, too, an apparent ally in the possible military strike on Syria, may already be on the informal agenda. Another ally, Saudi Arabia, ought be included as well; they could help draw in more Arab support for Obama’s Syrian policy. Of course, this begs the question whether David Cameron, François Hollande, or King Abdullah themselves, individually or jointly, care to tarry with President Obama at all.
Yet, while Putin’s surely a pain in virtually everyone’s rear, on this topic, he ought be heard, in person, by the President.
