U.S. President Barack Obama during a news conference at the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg on Sept. 6. Photo by Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
The Coalition Of The Unwilling -- Christopher Dickey, Daily Beast
At the G20 this week, America’s old allies made clear they think they can remain innocent bystanders to the Syrian war. But there’s nothing innocent about apathy, says Christopher Dickey.
Seamus Heaney, the great Irish poet who died in August, wrote that in war there is “no such thing as innocent bystanding,” and he was all too right about that. Those who do nothing to end the slaughter are as complicit as those who brandish their weapons. One might watch and wait for years “balanced between destiny and dread,” Heaney wrote. But there comes a time when there is nowhere to hide from the shared responsibility of humanity.
When President Barack Obama met with the leaders of the world’s most powerful nations at the G20 summit in Russia last week, seeking support for military action against the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, he found himself surrounded by a mob of bystanders, a coalition of the unwilling, as it were, and rarely has an American head of state looked so lonely.
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My Comment: Charles Dickey is too harsh on those who do not want to participate in U.S. military operations against Syria. Many do not see Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government as a threat .... and President Obama has been unconvincing in proving that Assad's government ordered the chemical attack that killed 1,400.