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WorldViews
The simple case for (and against) limited U.S. strikes on Syria
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By Max Fisher August 26, 2013
Syrian army soldiers are seen deployed in the Jobar neighborhood of Damascus. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
There were some very strong signals over the weekend that the United States might have been seriously considering, or even imminently prepared to launch, a series of limited strikes against Syria, most likely cruise missiles. Such an attack would have been in response to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad's strongly suspected use of chemical weapons in a recent attack that is thought to have killed hundreds of civilians. It also would have been the first direct U.S. military involvement in the Syrian civil war, which has killed more than 100,000 people over two-plus years of violence.
Here, laid out in very simple bullet points, are the cases for and against limited U.S. cruise missile or aircraft strikes against Syria, an issue that has been debated for more than a year now in Washington and apparently within the White House itself.
The case against limited U.S. strikes on Syria
1. It's almost certainly not going to change the overall course of the war. The Assad regime has a huge military advantage over the rebels, and the fighting is city-to-city, neighborhood-to-neighborhood. There is little reason to think that any number of cruise missiles or airstrikes will dramatically change the course of the war, much less force Assad to lose.
2. Remote strikes are imperfect and there's a high risk of civilian casualties. This is obviously more and less true for some potential targets than others, but regime forces are deeply embedded in Syrian cities and communities. There's a chance that strikes would have the opposite of the intended effect and lead to more civilian deaths rather than fewer.
3. Military intervention in a protracted foreign conflict can take on its own logic that makes escalation very difficult to stop. The Obama administration might have the intention of launching just one series of strikes and then backing off, but in practice that's rarely what happens. Domestic politics, international pressure and short-term military thinking can all lead a very limited campaign to snowball into a more open-ended one. That's particularly true if the goals of the initial strikes are vague or poorly defined