Obama’s withdrawal from Syria action makes him a wimp

By PETER WANYONYI

The apple never falls far from the tree. Just like Kenyan men make promises and then never act on them, President Barack Obama is following the script of his blood — like any other Kenyan politician — very faithfully. He is shillyshallying and pussy-footing on Syria, when what is required is not prevaricating, but resolve and action.

Exactly a year ago, Obama made it clear that America had “red lines” that President Basshar Al-Assad’s murderous regime in Syria dared not cross. The last straw, Obama said, was if any use of chemical weapons was detected.

At the time, only the Syrian government had access and control of chemical weapons in the war-torn country, and Obama wanted to make it clear that the deadly, indiscriminate effects of chemical weapons were kept at bay in the vicious civil war.

As with most big-power policies, this one showed a callous disregard for human life in favour of a strategic interest.

Backtracking

It was okay, apparently, for Al-Assad to continue murdering his civilians using conventional weapons, but not using chemical weapons. But as always happens in war, something unexpected took place.

The rebels fighting Al-Assad captured a chemical weapons facility. Some chemical weapons went missing, and the Al-Assad regime rather happily warned — applauded by Vladimir Putin’s rather Cold-War-minded Russia — that the rebels now had chemical weapons.

A year on, and the inevitable has happened: Someone used chemical weapons to massacre civilians.

Who exactly it was, is unclear since both sides are hell-bent on killing as many of the other side as possible. War is, after all, about killing people. But Mr Obama is now backtracking.

Unwilling to go to war in Syria after all, he is finding all manner of reasons not to live up to his promise a year ago. Just like a typical Kenyan politician.