A Circus in a Zoo.
Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, September 16th, 2013.
Salaroche

The world of International Relations often looks like a Zoo where some lethal creatures are barely kept from going at each other’s throats by a network of rather fragile international agreements. Every so often one of those creatures goes rogue, thereby forcing some of the other creatures to act as Zoo keepers and try to contain or eliminate the loose beast.

Occasionally, some of those lethal creatures lose perspective of the situation and all hell breaks loose in one or another quadrant of the Zoo. Picture, for instance, the G. W. Bush administration’s lunacies during and after the Iraq invasion and you’ll see exactly what I mean.

Other times, while some creatures act as Zoo keepers trying to contain a rogue Zoomate, there results a game of words and postures that resembles more a Circus than anything else. The result of such a situation can be best described as a Circus in a Zoo, which in turn may well describe the present situation we have with Syria.

But make no mistake, the clowns, illusionists, acrobats, and beasts performing in that Circus are for real and are some of the most lethal creatures the world has ever known. Obama, Putin, Cameron, and Hollande hold together in their hands enough lethal power to destroy the world a few times over. And Bashar al-Assad has recently won the #1 position as the most sanguinary beast on the planet.

With all that in mind, we could safely say that the world of International Relations looks today like a Circus where a group of players perform lethal tricks inside a lethal Zoo.

First, Barack Obama comes out crying Wolf saying that Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons poses a threat to the US. David Cameron immediately comes out of his holyday hideout to pledge allegiance to Obama, but the British Parliament ties a leash around his neck and Obama is left slowly spinning in the wind all by himself. And so the Circus begins.

François Hollande joins the show saying Assad deserves severe chastising for his chemical shenanigans, but is left talking to himself when Obama, under pressure from a war-weary US public, decides to hide behind Congressional skirts knowing very well that gaining their approval for war would be a long shot. And the Circus show gains momentum.

In the meantime, Vladimir Putin stages his own performance claiming the Syrian rebels are responsible for the chemical attacks adding that, anyway, the US has no authority to punish Assad and, in an unexpected show of acrobatics, publishes an Op-ed in the New York Times asserting that the US has no claim to exceptionality either.

And while the first two Circus rings are capturing the world’s attention, there comes Secretary John Kerry and blunders out that if Assad gave away his chemical weapons the US would refrain from lodging a few dozen Tomahawks on his military compounds across Syria. Putin, the master opportunist, doesn’t hesitate to snatch the blunder from Kerry and basically transforms it into a Russian initiative.

Meanwhile, back at the White House, Obama seems to have left the Circus ring and joined the audience and looks perfectly happy clapping his hands celebrating his Zoomates' performance. Now Kerry and Lavrov have come up with a plan to eliminate Assad’s chemical stockpiles that will take at least until mid-2014 to implement, thus leaving Assad to do as he wishes in the interim while Putin keeps arming him with more sophisticated weapons.

And while the Circus show unfolds, Assad is emboldened and starts articulating demands and specifying conditions for him to abide by whatever resolution the UN might finally come up with. So where does the Circus show stand as of today? Frankly, if the whole matter weren’t so potentially lethal it would all be perfectly laughable.

And what happened to Obama the initial Circus ring leader? Well, it seems that even lethal acrobats need to perform with cunning to be the star of the show; otherwise they end up playing the role of clowns, which doesn’t command much respect from the rest of the Zoomates at the lethal Zoo.

Salaroche