TexasCHLforum.com

Cedar Park Dad wrote:

Purplehood wrote:Really? The Syrians wouldn't be expecting us to destroy their Air Force over Chemical Weapons?

I repeat, there are absolutely no attainable or quantifiable goals that our military can accomplish that is worthwhile that do not fall-short of the requirement for complete boots-on-the-ground intervention such as in Iraq and Afghanistan. So by default, anything we do short of that is a waste of time and resources.

Well we could respond with nuking the artillery position that launched the site, and suspected Assad heaquarters, with a notation that US policy is that WMDs begets WMDs.

Short of that though, you're correct.

Superman wrote:I may be the lone dissenter here, but but I'm in the camp that we have to do something. I completely disagree with Obama on pretty much every single thing he has ever done, but I think he is heading in the right direction this time (although I think he will "limp wrist" it and not go far enough and probably make things worse).

I think we should use aggressive military action to severely punish the Assad regime for using chemical weapons, but I think we should not "put boots on the ground." We should also not have the intention of regime change as I think Al Qaeda and/or other Jihadists would seize power. I agree with this open letter's approach "to deter or destroy the Assad regime’s airpower and other conventional military means of committing atrocities against civilian non-combatants."

I think we should be very cautious about arming rebels. If we can find rebels who will fight Assad AND the Al Qaeda jihadists, then I'm for helping them...but I fear our arms falling into the hands of the radicals.

I absolutely think it is in the U.S. national interest to punish any group (government or not) that uses weapons of mass destruction to purposely kill innocent civilians...and to send a very strong warning to everyone considering using WMD in the future. If we do nothing, we are sending the message to everyone that it's open season and we should expect radicals to use WMD more often, against more targets and to kill more people.

There are also rumors that it was actually the rebels who used the chemical weapons to drag us into fighting their fight. I think we need to make absolutely sure that we are punishing the guilty party. Reference here.

This is one of those fights that we "have to fight." I'm not talking about the civil war, but the use of chemical weapons. With all that said, I am very concerned about this administration's ability to craft or execute such a policy.