As you may recall, much of Senator Obama's message in 2008 was about international coalitions. He mocked President Bush for "going at it alone." I guess that 40-something countries in Iraq was not a big enough coalition. Or, having UK, Canadian and other NATO soldiers take bullets in Afghanistan was not enough either.
Today, President Obama stands alone in the world. He can't even get the UK in Syria. He has found some "moral support" but no one is offering airplanes or missiles.
President Obama is saying that the world drew a "red line." However, no one seems ready to enforce it or fight for the innocent people of Syria.
President Obama is painfully learning that it was easier to build coalitions in the campaign trail than from The Oval Office.
This is the latest about the coalition that won't coalesce:
"Intervention would damage the global economy by pushing up oil prices, China said. Syria is not a significant oil exporter, but the prospect of conflict in the Middle East often pushes up oil prices. "Military action would have a negative impact on the global economy, especially on the oil price - it will cause a hike in the oil price," said Zhu Guangyao, the Chinese Vice Finance Minister. Brazil, India and South Africa also worry that intervention would do economic harm, according to Mr Putin's officials. Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Russian president, said the leaders of the large emerging economies spoke before the St Petersburg summit and agreed that Syrian intervention would have an "extremely negative effect" on the global economy." While the British and French governments have both backed the principle of military intervention to punish the Assad regime's alleged use of chemical weapons, the European Union as a whole is opposed, European officials said. Herman van Rompuy, the EU president, arrived at the summit with a warning against military action." (Telegraph)
We've come a long way from that summer of 2008 when Obama was treated like a rock star in Europe.
Frankly, we have a perfect storm here: We have a man who made outregously silly statements about international relations when he was a candidate and a crowd silly enough to believe it.
Silly speaker plus silly listeners equals what we are seeing today.
President Obama stands alone in the world and it does not look any better back here. He is having a difficult time getting Democrats to sign on. It would be an embarrassing loss in the House if the vote were held today.
He does have Rep Pelosi with him. It's only a matter of time before she makes the following statement: We have to bomb Syria to find out what happens after!
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