IS AMERICA SERIOUS ABOUT ITS RED-LINES?

On August 20, 2012, President Obama delivered a statement of huge significance on the Syrian crisis. But just 12-months on, many are pondering whether the ‘red lines’ which he laid down amount to anything other than political rhetoric. During a White House press briefing a year ago, the President said: ‘We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilised… That would change my equation.’

Syrian rebels and opponents of the Assad regime claim to have substantive evidence that Bashar al-Assad has done more than just ‘move around’ stockpiles of chemical munitions. Accusations are such that Mr Assad has utilised nerve agents, such as sarin or vx nerve gas, to kill between 500 and 1,300 people. Photographs have beamed the world this week depicting scores of dead children with no visible signs of injuries. It is highly likely that chemicals were used.

If this attack is proved, which must come from tests carried out by UN inspectors, then it would amount to the deadliest attack of this kind since Saddam Hussein gassed tens of thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq in 1988. Saddam Hussein used chemicals left-over from the 8-year Iran-Iraq war, but much of it still remains unaccounted for.

Mr Obama’s red-line would appear to have been crossed, and with that his ‘equation’ (or calculus) has also been changed. The ante has been upped with both Britain and France expressing the view that some reaction is now necessary. An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council was called for by Britain, though no one ever expected permanent council members Russia and China to change their indifferent stance to a raging civil war in Syria that has now claimed more than 100,000 lives and the deaths this week of more than 1,000 civilians in what seems an almost certain chemical attack. France, too, has been angered and has warned Syria of a forceful response.

What President Obama will do remains to be seen, but any decisive action will be tempered by the complex situation on the ground. The American public will be wary of putting weaponry in the hands of some rebel groups affiliated with radical Islamists such as Al-Qaeda, and any attempt to establish a no-fly zone would be tantamount to a declaration of war because its longer-term aim would be to decapitate Assad’s air defences. Russia continues to supply Assad with arms and refuses outright to bring those supply lines to an end. This has become a significant contributory factor in a bloody war that can only exasperate the death toll and worsen the humanitarian crisis as refuges flock in their tens of thousands to neighbouring countries for safer sanctuary.

Mr Obama’s foreign policy is hardly helping the situation, either, which has turned into an almost stagnated Zen. The U.S. refused to act earlier in Syria because it would have meant military action in the middle of the presidential election; he spoke out against the Assad regime yet failed to offer real support to the rebels; and, he has moved his red-lines to such a degree that they are now almost impossible to cross. America’s attitude towards Egypt, too, has a similar pattern to it, where Mr Obama has swung from tolerating one dictatorial regime to another.

The United States needs to be at the forefront in seeking a solution to the Syrian crisis. As impregnable as the situation has become, that is no excuse for America to avail itself of responsibility. Mr Obama is the leader of the free world, and as such should be striving harder to bring this ghastly war to an end.