Not offering any help is one way to get others to do their part.
True enough, and we could stand to stop spending trillions over there too. Better intel and surgical strikes work for me.
Could he just be leading from behind?
The further he goes the behinder he gets!
The USA IS the major political power on the planet. YOU are the leaders of the West and the Free World. None of the other major western powers will involve themselves in a foreign escapade without (at least) the tacit approval of the Whitehouse. The fact that some of them ARE now taking the initiative in foreign affairs is not some great american triumph in forcing them to do their bit. It's a consequence of the Bumbler-in-Chief's erratic foreign policies. He over analyses situations, and can't seem to make his mind up. That weakens American prestige, it emboldens your enemies, confuses the neutral nations, and frustrates your allies.
Consider the Libyan crisis that got rid of Colonel Gaddaffi a bit back. The British signalled early on that they were ready to assist any US policy initiative in the area, much as they did in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the US administration said and did nothing. When the Brits put forward the idea of imposing a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent Gaddaffi bombing his own people, Hillary Clinton said loud and clear that the US was opposed to that, so the Brits backed off (of course). Then after a while, when the scale of what was happening became clear, Clinton backtracked and sent US warships in to evacuate civilians and show the flag. The administration vacillated and ummed and ahhed for WEEKS, and you just can't do that with fast-paced foreign affairs crises like that. Eventually Britain and French went ahead on their own, but precious time had been lost, and the West did not capitalise on the situation as well as they could and should have done. And now we have Islamists and extremists on the rise in North Africa.
This situation is nothing for Americans to cheer about. The Anglo-French initiative in Mali basically boils down to "we don't trust you to do the right thing any more".