Obama is beginning the week by launching an unprecedented campaign to brainwash the Americans and Congress. Six federal TV channels will broadcast tonight the interview that the President granted yesterday to make out a case for action against Syria. All leading Administration officials have been giving similar interviews. On Tuesday, September 10th, President Obama is due to deliver a TV address to the nation. These are clearly extraordinary efforts that prove that a lot is at stake for Barack Obama.
The US Congress is due to reconvene today, September 9th, to immediately take up the planned "limited strikes" on Syria. If Congressmen fail to shore up the President, and there is every prerequisite for things to take such a turn, then Congress will strike a major blow at Obama’s public image. But his image will be further tainted if the Nobel Peace Prize winner chooses to ignore the lawmakers’ decision and will launch a military attack against Damascus, a course of action that the White House has repeatedly hinted it may take. This kind of scenario will paralyze the Administration’s entire legislative programme for the remaining three years, for should this happen, the Republican majority in the House will hardly agree to any compromise on budget problems.
But if Obama does get "his war", as Americans put it, this will only bode ill for him. According to experts, "surgical missile strikes" will fail to overthrow the Bashar al-Assad regime. The military operation will then have to be stepped up, which Americans are sure to oppose and which will only play into the hands of rebel fighters, many of whom make no secret of their involvement with al-Qaeda terrorists.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz said in an interview with the Blaze television network that by insisting on a military operation President Obama is turning the US Air Force into al-Qaeda’s Air Force.
"The President has been advocating arming the rebels in Syria in a move that makes no sense whatsoever. Of the nine major rebel groups that are fighting there right now at least seven of them appear to have some significant ties to al-Qaeda. I’ll give you one of the simplest principles of foreign policy that we are to be following, which is 'don’t give weapons to people who hate you, don’t give weapons to people who want to kill you."
A likely seizure of power by Islamists in Syria with the US support is precisely what Congress is mostly concerned about. According to the latest calculations by The Washington Post daily, 224 Representatives of the 433 (two seats are currently vacant in the House), are opposed to the planned missile and bomb attacks. The 224 Representatives clearly take into account the way their voters feel about such strikes. According to the latest polls, 56% to 60% of Americans are opposed to the use of force in Syria. Republican Representative for Ohio Bill Johnson has been quite articulate about this kind of sentiment.
"I have not had a single constituent come up to me and say they favour America getting involved militarily in Syria’s conflict."
Russian experts basically agree that a military operation in Syria has been predetermined. Today, the United States can afford to launch a military operation not just in Syria, but the question is what next? All signs are the US Administration has no answer to this question, says the Moscow-based MGIMO University Professor Sergei Druzhilovsky.
According to him, the US has already tried to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, and also tried its hand at interfering in Libya. The result was negative. If the gangster groups that claim to be the opposition succeed in getting the upper hand in Syria, this will prove a tragedy for the entire Muslim world, because fighting the Damascus government troops are now all the scum of the region, as was the case in Afghanistan in the past.
The Director of the Russian Centre for Public and Political Research, Vladimir Yevseev, feels that there is a good reason why US military and political analysts are concerned about the consequences of US military intervention in Syria. He points out that it’s not just surgical strikes, but the use of strategic bombers that the US has been considering lately.
"The situation may start following the worst possible scenario. The seizure of power in Syria by Islamists is not unlikely if the US interferes militarily. And then it’s not just some Islamists, but al-Qaeda that will come to power in Syria, since it is an organization that’s best prepared for grabbing power."
Meanwhile, the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag has reported with reference to German radar intelligence that President Bashar al-Assad has never ordered the Syrian Armed Forces Command to use war chemicals. The German naval ship Oker has been engaged in radio monitoring off the Syrian coast. The German weekly also reports that the "moderate" groups among the rebels are losing their influence in favour of the terrorist network al-Qaeda