US Naval forces move towards Syria as reports of chemical weapons use continue, most Americans oppose intervention
The US navy continues to move naval warships in the towards Syria in the Mediterranean gearing up for a possible military strike, with Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel saying today, “President Obama has asked the Defense Department to prepare options for all contingencies. We have done that.”
Image/CIA
The Boston Herald reported Saturday that in a meeting with his national security team, President Barack Obama received a detailed review of the range of options he has requested for the U.S. and its international partners to respond if the fact-finding process concludes that Syrian President Bashar Assad engaged in deadly chemical warfare.
A year ago US President Barack Obama warned the use of chemical weapons in Syria would cross a “red line” and have “enormous consequences”.
Who is using chemical weapons in Syria? The answer to that is still muddled.
Syrian state television reported troops found chemical agents in rebel tunnels in the Damascus suburb of Jobar; however, some are calling this an attempt to strengthen the government’s case against a suspect chemical weapons assault.
In addition, the Asaad regime has come out specifically denying the accusations of chemical weapon use, “We have never used chemical weapons in Syria, in any form whatsoever, be it liquid or gas,” Omran al-Zohbi told a Beirut-based Arab television channel in an interview.
The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reports receiving approximately 3,600 patients displaying neurotoxic symptoms in less than three hours on the morning of Wednesday, August 21, 2013. Of those patients, 355 reportedly died.
“MSF can neither scientifically confirm the cause of these symptoms nor establish who is responsible for the attack,” said Dr. Janssens. “However, the reported symptoms of the patients, in addition to the epidemiological pattern of the events—characterized by the massive influx of patients in a short period of time, the origin of the patients, and the contamination of medical and first aid workers—strongly indicate mass exposure to a neurotoxic agent. This would constitute a violation of international humanitarian law, which absolutely prohibits the use of chemical and biological weapons.”
In the US; however, the majority of Americans oppose U.S. intervention in Syria’s civil war even if chemical weapons are confirmed used by the Syrian government.
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, about 60 percent of Americans surveyed said the United States should not intervene in Syria’s civil war, while just 9 percent thought President Barack Obama should act.
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[…] With US warships in the Mediterranean ready to act on President Obama’s order, some in Congress are urging President Barack Obama to consult with Congress before taking military action in Syria. […]
[…] numbers do not jibe with numbers from the humanitarian group, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), who earlier reported 355 deaths due to likely chemical […]