It is ironic that the president who campaigned on ending wars and won a Nobel Peace Prize is doing his level best and using all his resources to sell a war that has no merit whatsoever, except perhaps to make a few bucks for Raytheon, as it is a war that is opposed by most of the world and the majority of the American people.

George W. Bush lied the country into a disastrous war. Barack Obama is cajoling the reluctant country into another one. He said he doesn't do "pinpricks." Yet he also would not commit boots on the ground. He brags that he can limit the scope and duration of the war, however General Dempsey knows better: once the war gets started, you have to be prepared for it to escalate.

Obama has dug himself a hole.

But he is in luck. His Secretary of State offered an escape route, in the form of a gaffe. Russia seized that gaffe and worked out a deal: for Syria to give up its chemical weapons in exchange for peace. And the world heaved a collective sigh of relief.

It is a godsend. So grab it, Obama. And grab it, he did. In a series of primetime television interviews, he called Russia's offer a "possible breakthrough" and a "potentially positive development" in the standoff with the government of Bashar al-Assad. With a possible deal with Syria in the offing, senate majority leader Harry Reid postponed the vote to authorize use of force.

That again is good luck. For the president might very well lose the vote in both houses of congress, as increasing doubt spreads throughout the country and the legislature. A defeat would be devastating for his presidency.

The Russian plan calls on the Syrian government to not only agree to place its chemical weapons under international control, but also to destroy them. Syria would then join the treaty on the prohibition of chemical weapons. All three points have been accepted by the Syrian leadership.

The details of a deal will have to be negotiated, and there will be a lot of haggling and bargaining. But all sides seem to want a deal. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that he would propose that the Security Council unite and vote on an immediate chemical weapons transfer, placing weapons and chemical precursors in a safe place within Syria for destruction.

And Obama claims credit for a possible deal. He said, "It is unlikely that we would have arrived at that point without a credible military threat." Does he know that military action and military threats not in self-defense and without authorization from the UN Security Council are illegal?

That, of course, is not end of the story. Obama will not let John McCain, Lindsey Graham and his pals in the rebel camp down. Shoring them up was his intent in the first place. Therefore, U.S. weapons are reaching Syrian rebels.

The arms shipments began streaming into Syria over the past two weeks, along with separate deliveries by the State Department of vehicles and other gear -- a flow of materials that marks a major escalation of the U.S. role in Syria's civil war.

Americans just marked the twelfth anniversary of the 9-11 al-Qaeda terrorist attacks that killed some three thousand people. Now Obama chooses to side with al-Qaeda.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/zhaojinglun.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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