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| English: President Bashar al-Assad of Syria . Original background. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
I am for building an international coalition. The effort will weaken undemocratic forces in countries like Russia.
But the response can not be a slap on the hand. It has to have regime change as its goal. The rebels are eager and able to be the ground forces. The world just needs to secure the air space and strike from the air to take down the regime's strength locations.
A Shift in Tone on Syria From the White House
there was “very little doubt” that President Bashar al-Assad’s military forces had used chemical weapons against civilians last week.... The president, who warned a year ago that the use of chemical weapons by Syrian government forces would be a “red line,” has faced criticism from Congressional Republicans and others for failing to respond more forcefully to evidence of earlier, smaller-scale chemical attacks. Mr. Obama, who inherited two costly wars — in Iraq and Afghanistan — has been extremely reluctant to commit American military forces, even in the form of missile strikes, to another tangled conflict in the Middle East. ..... a strike on Syrian targets would come soon, perhaps using cruise missiles fired from ships off shore ..... Early Sunday, the White House said Syrian officials had refused to let the inspectors see the site of the attack. .... “The evidence available has been significantly corrupted as a result of the regime’s persistent shelling and other intentional actions over the last five days” ...... Russia, an ally of the Syrian government, accused the rebels of using the weapons, but few analysts believe they have the supplies or ability to do so. ..... Syria warned that any American military action would “create a ball of fire that will inflame the Middle East” ........ Iranian state news media quoted the Tehran government as saying that any intervention by Washington would have severe consequences. .... Syria is now a test of how the world might respond to Iran as it approaches the capability of making a nuclear weapon ..... “Assad’s regime has become a full Iranian client, and Syria has become Iran’s testing ground,” Mr. Netanyahu added. “Now the whole world is watching. Iran is watching, and it wants to see what would be the reaction on the use of chemical weapons.” ..... Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island and a member of the Armed Services Committee, said any military option should be carefully circumscribed. “We can’t let ourselves get into a situation where this becomes a springboard for general military operations in Syria to try to change the dynamic” of the hostilities there ..... the Navy had increased its presence in the eastern Mediterranean Sea to four destroyers, each carrying long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles similar to those launched in past American attacks on Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.Analysis: Western intervention in Syria would be a decisive attempt to mould the future of the Middle East
Different reasons have been suggested to explain why the Assad regime might have launched a major chemical weapons attack, risking Western intervention, just as conventional wisdom had it he was starting to win the war. ...... sees the attack as retaliation for a close-run assassination attempt on the Syrian leader on August 8 ..... The war is now a running sore imperilling Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and more. ...... Already, reports talk of hundreds of tons of arms pouring into northern Syria, to be distributed among "favourable" – in other words, non-jihadist – rebel groups. The US navy is moving in and Britain is readying its forces.
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