U.S. Moves Toward Intervention in Syria

President Obama met with his national security team yesterday to decide what to do about Syria amid mounting evidence the Bashar Assad regime has used chemical weapons recently in its civil war, purportedly resulting in the deaths  of hundreds of civilians.  Reports today indicate U.S. Naval forces are being moved closer to the Eastern Mediterranean nation.

The president said a year ago that the use of lethal chemical weapons in Syria would constitute a "red line" necessitating an international response.  It appears the Administration is currently analyzing evidence to make certain that a chemical attack did in fact occur.  The president spoke with British Prime Minister David Cameron by telephone yesterday.  The prime minister's office released a statement saying the use of outlawed chemical weapons would constitute a grave threat to international law and require a firm response.  It also said that regime interference in United Nations inspection efforts indicates the Assad government "has something to hide."

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters it is pretty certain that such weapons were used.  He said the Defense Department has presented the president with a range of options.  He declined, however, to specify those options or to confirm reports that Navy warships were now massing within range of Syria.

President Obama has heretofore been reluctant to get directly involved in the Syrian civil war which has now raged for over two years, created up to two million refugees and cost, according to estimates, over 100,000 lives.  A rising against the authoritarian Assad regime began in conjunction with the "Arab Spring" movement in 2011.  The fighting has seesawed back and forth, with Arab states sending support to rebel groups and Iran and Russia backing Assad.  The tangled forces involved in the fighting include Iranian-backed Hezbollah Shi'ite extremists on Assad's side and some al-Qaeda affiliated groups in the opposition.  Obama has been concerned to keep aid to the rebels out of the hands of the al-Qaeda jihadist Sunni forces allied with the more democratic groups all fighting to oust Assad.

"If the U.S. goes in and attacks another country without a U.N. mandate and without clear evidence that can be presented, then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it - do we have the coalition to make it work?" Obama said in a television interview broadcast Friday. "Those are considerations that we have to take into account."  It seems the verification and the international backing are now being sought.

If action is taken, expect it to take the form of cruise missiles launched from Navy warships, the same type of action taken against the Libyan regime in its civil war.  Targets would probably include Assad's air forces and artillery units, the regime forces most capable of delivering chemical agents against the Syrian populace and rebel fighters.