Obama Looks Like Loopy

President of the United States, Barack Obama, hailed the chemical weapons pact on Syria agreed with Russia as deterrence against further use of chemical weapons. While Syria joined Chemical Weapons Convention, the administration of Bashar al-Assad resumed attack against rebels, declaring victory on diplomacy to prevent U.S. air strike. It is unclear whether the pact will work for dismantling chemical weapons in Syria. What is obvious is that Obama showed inability of U.S. to achieve the goal he had set and inconsistency of his diplomacy. The style he took reminded one of shaky handlings of diplomacy by former Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, who was called “loopy” by U.S. officials

Last year, Obama drew a “red line” on the civil war in Syria, saying “a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around and utilized.” Although there are arguments about the definition of “red line” and consequence of crossing it, it was clear that Obama determined use of force against Syria on recognition that “red line” had been crossed, and then he requested approval of Congress. Now, he is justifying his restriction as if U.S. threat had worked.

Deterrence might be a key word when a leader defends himself. After entanglement over relocation of Futenma U.S. Marine Base in Okinawa, in which he failed to find alternative place and settled in accepting original plan to move it to Henoko, Hatoyama explained the base is needed in Okinawa as deterrence. The common elements between Hatoyama and Obama is justification without achieving original goals. Main reason why both of them could not achieve the goal was that the goal was unachievable from the beginning. They simply did not know that.

The critical condition they commonly had was having few friends. Seeing Futenma relocation out of Okinawa is unrealistic, lawmakers of his party, Democratic Party of Japan turned their back to Hatoyama. Obama also faced reluctance of allied nations on military option to Syria, which, for instance the British showed apparently.

Revealing immatureness as leading party, Hatoyama’s failure brought a crucial damage on DPJ administration. The world needs to see what kind of consequence will be brought by Obama diplomacy on Syria. If he failed in dismantling chemical weapons in Syria, credibility of U.S. diplomacy, and also U.S. military power, will obviously decline, leaving the fact that U.S. could do nothing on 1,400 victims of chemical weapons. There would be a lesson: Do not say empty promise.