A military showdown over Syria has been averted for now but the proxy war that pits the United States and its allies against Russia is set to intensify in that critically located nation, with further horrific consequences for civilians and the likely proliferation of transnational terrorists.
Had U.S. President Barack Obama waged war on Syria, as he almost did, he wouldn't have got what diplomacy has achieved — a U.S.-Russian deal to disarm that country of its chemical-weapons arsenal.
To be sure, Obama was desperate to climb down from his war carriage without losing face, given that no previous American president had looked so weak at home and so isolated abroad on a war issue. Russian President Vladimir Putin bailed out Obama in the nick of time from a looming congressional defeat over authorization to attack Syria — a setback that would have hobbled the rest of Obama's presidency.
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