Barack Obama’s 2012 failure to enforce his red line against the use of chemical weapons by the now-ousted Assad regime in Syria for the fear of empowering jihadists shattered American credibility. Obama’s stance was an extension of the same weakness he displayed when Iran’s population took to the streets to protest the rigged vote of 2009, which resulted in the re-election of Holocaust denier Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president. Washington has an array of tools at its disposal — such as seizing oil shipments to choke off the regime’s revenues, restoring Internet access after days of state-enforced blackout, or conducting targeted cyber operations to disrupt the regime’s repression apparatus.
Author: Ahmad Sharawi
Published at: 2026-01-13 23:30:54
Still want to read the full version? Full article
