Up until this week, we had been hearing much about Syria and chemical weapons and a possible air strike on Syria by the United States. President Barack Obama, 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been beating the war drums and trying to encourage the American people and our allies of the importance of striking the existing regime in Syria.
Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for his "extraordinary efforts" to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. Part of the Nobel Committee's decision was based upon Obama's promotion of nuclear nonproliferation and a "new climate" in international relations fostered by Obama, especially in reaching out to the Muslim world. After the last couple of weeks, perhaps Obama should consider giving the Peace Prize back.
Much has been made of Vladimir Putin and the Russians coming to the rescue to help at least temporarily keep America from becoming involved militarily in another country. While there is some truth to this, I think there are two other true heroes. They are heroes that stepped up a couple of weeks before the Russians.
The first heroes are the British Parliament. When faced with the opportunity to fight alongside the U.S. in another war in a Middle Eastern country, the British Parliament voted 285-272 against using military force against Syria. This thirteen vote difference kept the British on the sidelines and postponed a strike.
The second group of heroes was the American people. Democrats, Republicans and Independents for the most part were all tired of war. The last poll that I recall reading about before the "Russian Rescue" had only a 29% support level for a strike against Syria. Predictions by the news media were that both the House and the Senate would vote against military action.
Hopefully, this episode has been a lesson to Obama and to the elected officials that represent us. We dodged a bullet this time. Sometimes history works out that way.
