Saved by the Bell…The Phone call that may have prevented (temporarily) WWIII
To say it has been a month of political roller coasters powerful enough to give even the most seasoned veterans a case of severe whiplash is an understatement…
The beginning of September featured what looked for sure to be yet another military disaster in the Middle East for Israel’s benefit. By all appearances, a nagging, needling Benjamin Netanyahu had finally gotten on U.S. President Barack Obama’s last nerve and pushed him into doing what he has resisted doing now for the last 4 years, meaning war with Syria. With up to the minute news reports featuring U.S. military assets steaming towards the Syrian coast at breakneck speed and a doomsday clock counting down to D-Day and H-Hour, the drama surrounding the event was so thick one could cut it with a knife…
And then, almost as quickly as it all started, it ended as abruptly as someone slamming on the brakes seconds before going over a 1,000 foot high cliff. Suddenly, President Obama remembered about the oath he swore to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution and announced that there would be no military action without the U.S. Congress being brought in on it, just as the law of land demands.
Of course, even the most politically naive would have a hard time leaving out of this curious political equation the fact that a mere few days before Obama had suddenly became a conscientious constitutionalist, he and other world leaders met in St. Petersburg, Russia for the G20 conference.
Equally difficult would be dismissing the possibility (likelihood) of Obama having discussed the messy business of Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin who up to this point has made it clear that as far as Syria going the way of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya that ‘nyet’ means ‘nyet’ and that Mother Russia was not going to simply sit by as yet another neighborhood within the community of man was decimated.