"In Washington, the chairman of the military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff
told a Senate committee that the Obama administration is deliberating
whether to use military force in Syria.... The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army General Martin Dempsey, said he has provided President Obama with options for the use of military force."
I'm not trying to be flippant, but we have seen this movie before. Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya.
Related: Obama's Syrian Shift
I suppose that is why Britain is pulling back on the arming of the insurgents:
"UK steps back from push to arm Syrian rebels" by Alan Cowell | New York Times, July 17, 2013
LONDON — After leading a determined push with France to remove legal hindrances to arming Syria’s rebels, Britain is apparently signaling a more cautious approach, even as British newspaper reports say Prime Minister David Cameron has retreated from the idea altogether.
The reluctance reflects a similar attitude in Washington toward the idea of sending small weaponry to the splintered Syrian insurgents, raising broader questions about the destiny of the rebels as the flow of battle turns against them.
Yeah, they are going to do it themselves.
From the moment in late May when Britain and France persuaded their reluctant partners in the European Union to lift an embargo on arms supplies to Syria, British officials have hedged on when arms shipments might begin.
“While we have no immediate plans to send arms to Syria,” Foreign Secretary William Hague said at the time, “it gives us the flexibility to respond in the future if the situation continues to deteriorate and worsen.”
Arguably, from the rebel and Western standpoint, the situation has significantly worsened: Support for President Bashar Assad by allies like Russia, Iran, and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah has enabled him to slow and gradually reverse the rebel campaign to oust him, which initially drew unequivocal Western and Arab rhetorical support.
As the momentum has swung toward loyalist forces, moreover, divisions among the insurgents have deepened, prompting increased Western concerns that weapons supplied to the opposition could end up in the hands of anti-Assad Islamist fighters aligned with Al Qaeda.
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"Outspoken Assad supporter assassinated in Lebanon" by Zeina Karam | Associated Press, July 18, 2013
BEIRUT — Gunmen burst into the first-floor apartment of a pro-government Syrian journalist Wednesday, killing him in a hail of nearly 30 bullets in a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon.
Israeli assassination squad.
The pre-dawn assassination of Mohammed Darrar Jammo is the latest in a series of brazen attacks that have shown the growing vulnerability of the Shi’ite militant group, which has found itself increasingly on the defensive at home over its decision to back President Bashar Assad in the civil war raging next door.
Violence linked to Syria’s war is increasingly washing across Lebanon, threatening to unleash large-scale fighting in a deeply fragmented country that is being constantly tested with ever deepening polarization over the conflict in Syria.
Jammo, a 44-year-old journalist and political commentator, was one of Assad’s and Hezbollah’s most vociferous defenders. In frequent appearances on television talk shows, he would staunchly support the Syrian regime’s strong-armed response to the uprising and in at least one case shouted down opposition figures, calling them ‘‘traitors.’’
Yeah, okay.
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Also see: Syrian Rebels Rebounding
US-Japan war games off the California coast imitate Chinese invasion
Can't we talk instead.
UPDATE: U.S. led ground invasion taking place on Syrian border
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Syrian shrine damaged; one dead" Associated Press, July 19, 2013
BEIRUT — Mortar shells struck near a major Shi’ite shrine outside Damascus on Friday, killing its caretaker in an attack that threatens to further escalate sectarian tensions in Syria’s civil war, the government and activists said.
And who benefits?
State-run news agency SANA said shells fired by rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad landed ‘‘in the vicinity’’ of the revered Sayida Zeinab shrine, killing Anas Roumani, the shrine’s administrative director. Several people were wounded in the explosion, SANA said.
Protection of the ornate, golden-domed mosque has become a rallying cry for Shi’ite fighters backing Assad, raising the stakes in a conflict that is increasingly being fought along sectarian lines.
You can believe that Zionist war propaganda if you want. I mean, they would never lie to you to serve or advance an agenda or anything.
Lebanese fighters from the militant Shi’ite Hezbollah group as well as Shi’ite Iraqi fighters have joined Syrian forces in battling rebels in the suburb that is home to the shrine of Sayida Zeinab, the prophet Mohammed’s granddaughter. The area, about 10 miles south of Damascus, has been engulfed in an offensive by Assad’s forces to recapture suburbs held by rebels and areas in the country’s strategic heartland....
Before Syria’s civil war, now in its third year, the shrine attracted tens of thousands of Shi’ite pilgrims from around the world....
Amazing how that mosque has stood for centuries given the sectarian hatred.
