WHY DOESN'T OBAMA RESOLVE THE PROBLEMS IN CHICAGO BEFORE SYRIA? See you in Damascus, to forget about the crisis at home!

Autumns brings ill tidings. No, it's not just the imminence of an American attack on Syria, bt also about the imminence of the negative economic trends over the last few months, which are ignored for the most part during holidays.

The public debt of the United States is vertiginously nearing the limit proposed by the Congress and without a new substantial increase, the Obama administration is threatened by default, amid the steep increase in interest rates.

Europe isn't doing any better, as the authorities are threatened by the measures necessary to cut spending, amid the continued drop in budget revenues.

And then, the solution was found to distract the attention of the population from the real problems: a new humanitarian war, this time in Syria.

The media blitz has focused on the use of chemical weapons against civilians by the Assad regime. In a recent intervention on the show Meet the Press on NBC, Secretary of State John Kerry has included Bashar al-Assad on the list of those who used chemical weapons during war time, together with Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein.

Does it matter that there is no evidence that chemical weapons were used by Hitler during military operations? Or that recently declassified CIA documents prove that the United States were complicit in "the most terrible chemical attacks ever conducted" (author's note: by Iraq against Iran), as written by Foreign Policy magazine?

Moreover, even though Kerry said that "the connections between the chemical attack and the Assad government are undeniable", an article by Associated Press shows the opposite: "Officials of the US intelligence services aren't certain that the attacks took place upon the order of Assad or that the attacks were executed by the governmental forces".

After president Obama decided to ask for the approval of the congress for the intervention in Syria, several photos and statements made by John Kerry showed up on the internet. The photography of a private dinner between Kerry and Assad, in 2009, was completed with the statements of the Secretary of State in 2011: "Assad keeps his word and was very generous to me".

But what led Obama to be so "generous"? Did he remember his Nobel peace prize?

It would seem that the reason is far more prosaic. At the end of last week, Washington Post wrote about the doubts of American officers on the "impact and the wisdom of a strike on Syria", most of them being concerned by the unwanted consequences of such an attack.

"I can't believe that the president is considering an attack", said for Washington Post an officer that has just returned from Afghanistan, as he was concerned that "we have to train again for a conventional war, against an enemy that has modern weapons systems".

General Martin Dempsey, former chief of the American army, said, in an interview granted to ABC, that "the mere use of weapons, without a clear strategy, will never lead to the results which we are imagining".

Online German daily Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten is far more outspoken: "the revolt of the American army has forced Obama to take a step back".

DWN also writes that there is no historical precedent "of the refusal of American soldiers to follow their president".

Aside from the unusual attitude of the American armed forces, there is also Russia's opposition. The international press wrote about the visit of prince Bandar bin Sultan, the head of the secret services of Saudi Arabia to Moscow. He proposed president Putin to share the world's oil market in support for dropping his support of Syria, according to Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in The Telegraph.

The Russian president refused, and Bandar bin Sultan made a capital mistake. According to an article in the online publication EU Times, the envoy of Saudi Arabia - implied to Putin that his country controls the Chechen rebels and he issued a not too veiled threat concerning the safety of the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Putin's reaction was immediate. EU Times came back with a piece of news according to which "Putin has ordered a massive strike against Saudi Arabia if the West attacks Syria".

Could this Russian reaction be part of the reason why president Obama has decided to ask for the approval of Congress? It is very possible, because the American press is avoiding, or doesn't know what details to give on the new position of the Government in Washington.

The announcement of president Obama has caught the French president unprepared , according to Financial Times, as France, burdened by its tumultuous history in Syria, has stated its unconditional support for the United States. After the statement made by Obama, the French stance changed from announcing an imminent attack, to "France can not act on its own". The statement was made by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs.

It would seem that not much has changed since General Patton saucily expressed his preference: "I'd rather have a German division in front of me than a French division behind me". I wonder what the General would feel about the guerrilla warfare of the winner of Nobel peace prize?

In support of French president Hollande, who probably thinks he is some kind of reincarnation of Napoleon, came his French Socialist colleagues, who said that there is no need for the approval of the Parliament. Could they be seeking a Nobel peace prize of their own?

While Obama is preparing his attack on Syria, back on the home front, in Chicago, the city from which the "community left" started his journey towards the White House and which the former chief of staff of the presidential administration as its mayor, street fights continue.

In the first eight months of the current year, the number of homicides in Chicago was 288, according to data published on the www.redeyechicago.com website. During the same period, 95 American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, according to data on the icasualties.org website.

Just a bit farther away from bankruptcy then Detroit, the local administration in Chicago has decided to shut down 51 schools prior to the beginning of the new school year, and the students transferred to other schools will be provided "safe passage" through the violent areas of the city. Couldn't the drones sent overseas by the troops sent in "humanitarian" wars to distant lands be used to protect the pupils?

No, because the mission to bring "civilization" to other countries is primordial. And it will be carried out through any means, including through operations which remind of the incident in the Tonkin Bay.

Unfounded speculation? Not at all. The situation in Syria was recently reviewed on CNN, on the show Global Public Square made by Fareed Zakaria.

After expressing his hope that the American Congress will support the intervention in Syria, Zbigniew Brezezinski, former national security advisor at the White House and founding member of the Trilateral Commission, said that "the United States must act to fulfill their commitments", because the credibility of America and of the president is at stake". Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, also emphasized the importance of an attack on Syria.

But what can be done when the protests are coming from all over the world and not just from the leaders of countries such as China and Russia?

Brezezinski ahs the solution: "We need to create a situation in which their own interest would determination them to participate in a larger scale international initiative, which would define the rules of the game and the solutions to the current problems, which go beyond Syria".

Paraphrasing English author Samuel Johnson, great writer Isaac Asimov asks Salvor Hardin, a character of "the Foundation" by Isaac Asimov, to state that "violence is the last refuge of the incompetents".

That phrase was referring to the fall and the unraveling of the Galactic Empire. Now we are talking about the collapse of a world "built" on paper money, a collapse which exceeds the comprehension ability of most of today's puppet leaders.

How long can the current game continue, as the rules of the domestic and international policy no longer mean anything? And how long can incompetence be covered up by violence?