It’s Best to Be Slow and Thorough on This Issue
I don’t really mean to be facetious about this, but there exist several possibilities regarding the use of nerve gas in Syria:
- Most people think that Bashar al-Assad is responsible, and he might very well be
- Arrayed against Bashar and his Baathists are a lot of Al-Qaida baddies, who might well have gotten their hands on some Sarin from Chemical Ali’s stock of it in Iraq
- It could be that both sides are releasing nerve gas, which is not as outlandish as it may seem
Remember that George W. Bush had us going to war against Saddam in Iraq based on “weapons of mass destruction” that were never found. We cannot risk making assumptions that will lead to a massive loss of lives among Syrians or among our own armed forces.
Even if we are able to identify which side is employing nerve gas, I am reluctant about committing ourselves to bombing raids or, worse yet, “boots on the ground.” If we send in our bombers and Cruise Missiles, how do we know what targets to hit, considering that our military intelligence is god-awful or nonexistent. And do we want to set up another Green Zone, this time in Damascus or Homs or Aleppo, from which we cannot venture out without being blown to bits by roadside bombs?
And if we commit to either course, who stands to gain? Who stands to lose? Are we even asking ourselves these questions, or do we just assume that we’re still the world’s policeman after all these failed forays?
tarnmoor 
This should be something undertaken by the UN and perhaps the Arab League. I disagreed with JFK when he said something about becoming the world’s police force, and I think history so far has been in my favor.
This is a very nasty situation, with no easy answers. Yes, I think the US must proceed cautiously. That said, it is so very gruesome and morally revolting to see a lot of innocent civilians murdered indiscriminately by either their own government, or other horrible people. If there were ever a time for the United Nations to coordinate a response, this is it. And yes, a lot depends on decent intelligence, and so now we could use the CIA and the satellites and all that stuff, not to mention regular hands-on spies with reliable intelligence. Most of our imperial escapades have been a disaster, but turning our backs on this is similar to ignoring the Holocaust. Not a a lot of good choices to go around. Who wants to take this one on? Americans are always the bad guys, except when, you know, people need help. And the Syrians haven’t been our best friends, to say the least, but these are human beings dying, a lot of them, children.
You know the dialogue from Monty Python’s “Life of Bryan”—“We want all the Romans out of here, except the ones who build the hospitals and the roads…..”