James Cameron, the Prime Minister of UK has already faced the embarrassment of showing he is a head of a state without much control over foreign policy. He had hardly expected that the UK Parliament would vote not to involve in military action in Syria when he recalled the British MPs from their vacation to have a vote on the matter.
With UK being out of the picture for now, President Obama is facing greater pressure to take a decision on Syria. While multiple US Navy warships loaded with hundreds of Tomahawk missiles are maneuvering off the coast of Syria, the Commander in Chief is finding little support either at US, or in the international arena.
Nobody, wants to go to war, it seems.
Even though the President can authorize war without the approval of the Congress, more than 200 members of the Congress have already written signed letters demanding direct involvement in any decision to commit the country to another war.
On the international front, the UN has been effectively blocked from taking any action as both Russia and China are against action in Syria and have already vetoed two previous draft resolutions on the matter.
Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary General is calling for peace, while Putin went on record on Friday saying the US claims on Syria was “full of lies.”
An opinion poll in France showed more than 60 percent people against military action in Syria, and in US a recent NBC News Survey found 79 percent of respondents want Congressional approval before military action is taken and the US engages in another war.
The sentiments were summed succinctly by Representative McDermott, who asked, “What is our national interest here? What is our end goal? … Our past habit of reaction without thought to long-term and unintended consequences will yield the results we’ve had in the past: protracted conflicts that accomplish little, if anything. We have no way of telling what chain of events will domino with our involvement “limited” or otherwise.”
McDermott referred the President’s comment on Friday that the US was planning a “limited, narrow” military response in the matter.
If US goes to war over Syria, it would be the first time in history that a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate is declaring war on a country, and when that country is not directly attacking his homeland.
