Obamas Mission Accomplished

von Thomas von der Osten-Sacken / jungle world

17-5-2014 – Schon als der Chemiewaffendeal mit Syrien bekannt wurde, der vergangenen August nicht nur Assad und vor seine Luftwaffe rettete, sondern das syrische Regime sogar international zum Partner aufwertete (wie will man diplomatisch mit wem konstruktiv zusammenarbeiten, dessen Sturz man zugleich fordert?), gab es sie, die Stimmen, die zweifelten, dass mit einem baathistischen Massenmoerden man Vertrage abschliessen koennen oder solle.

Wer zweifelte, galt als Spielverderber, der diesen vermeintlich so grossen Durchbruch multilateraler Diplomatie in Frage stellte. Nun, wie Michael Weiss dokumentiert, tritt ein, was so absehbar war, wie die naechsten Barrel Bombs auf Wohngebiete: Natuerlich haelt sich Assad nicht an den Deal, setzt weiter chemische Waffen ein und was auch hat er zu befuerchten? Rote Linien?

The Assad regime is withholding 27 tons of sarin precursor chemicals as “leverage,” to quote the Washington Post, in an ongoing argument with the West about the fate of its chemical manufacturing and storage plants. According to Robert P. Mikulak, the US envoy to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), “12 chemical weapons production facilities declared by Syria remain structurally intact” and “the Assad regime has delayed the operation at every opportunity.” Nor, Mikulak told the Post, are these facilities in rebel-held or rebel-interdicted hot zones: they’re fully under the control of Damascus in the network of tunnels and buildings which the regime built to conceal its chemical weapons program in the first place.

Detail number two: the regime is still using chemical weapons against the people of Syria. Building on superb investigative journalism in Britain’s Daily Telegraph, Human Rights Watch has now concluded that chlorine bomb attacks, all delivered by helicopters – a weapon of war which, if the Syrian rebels had them, would mean an end to the war – struck the towns of Kfar Zeita, Temanaa, and Telmans, killing at least 11 people and wounding 500 more. All of these attacks, the watchdog notes, occurred in April, the very month the regime was due to have relinquished the last of its chemical stocks to the OPCW.

This demands immediate multilateral action, right?  Except that it doesn’t, because Obama’s big diplomatic breakthrough in ensuring peace in our time was hastily cobbled together with a Russian booby-trap.

Peace in Our Time, das findet auch die Washington Post in ihrem Editorial, ist einer, der darauf basiert, Assad einfach weitermachen – und morden zu lassen:

There are, of course, many actions Mr. Obama could take to punish Syria for its use of chemical weapons and to prevent their further deployment. He could begin by granting the opposition’s request for antiaircraft missiles to use against the helicopters that are dropping chlorine bombs. He could revive his plan to launch U.S. military strikes against Syrian infrastructure that supports those attacks.

In reality, Mr. Assad is being allowed to disregard his chemical weapons commitment with impunity not because there’s nothing the United States can do but because Mr. Obama chooses to do nothing.