Syria: Would it be the Next Iraq for the United States?

Alejandro Faini,

Editor (North America)

 

WASHINGTON- The latest alleged chemical attack in Syria has triggered the international community, especially the United States, where this week, President Barack Obama has stated his intentions to use the military power to intervene in the situation on Syria.

White House’s plan might involve the use of missile and not of “boots in the ground” as stated by some inside sources.

The American government has stated that it had a series of communications between two leaders of the Assad government, where they discussed the use of chemical weapons, but according to some analysts, this might lead to other questions instead of answering and proving that the Assad government was indeed responsible for the use of chemical agents against rebel and civilians in the country.

It is important to remember that the United Nation inspectors in Syria have not shown their results yet, hence, most of the negative response against intervention in Syria, it is expected that the US and British government show their pieces of evidence to the international community later this week.

Secondly, the UN has not yet agreed to an intervention; Russia and China have voted against it, thus making any military action from any government legally problematic.

The plan for a military intervention has not received full support in the international and local community. Moreover, in a recent poll, 10% of Americans did not agree with a military intervention in Syria. In fact, in Chicago, one of the most popular cities for Syrian citizens, there was a rally held on Tuesday against the intervention of the international community, where some leaders of the Syrian community in Chicago compared the situation in Syria and the possible intervention with the previous war in Iraq, which began with the idea that Saddam Hussein and his government had nuclear missiles. The allegations were later discovered to be false.

In the American government, Republican John McCain has been one of the most supportive to the idea of a military intervention and on the other side Democrat and member of the security committee Loretta Sanchez has stated her disapproval of any military intervention in Syria.

 

Image Courtesy: U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 1st Class Arlo K. Abrahamson. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons