U.S. Warns Syria, But Can The Pentagon Stop Chemical Weapons? -- Kevin Baron amd John Reed, E-Ring/Foreign Policy

U.S. Warns Syria, But Can The Pentagon Stop Chemical Weapons? -- Kevin Baron amd John Reed, E-Ring/Foreign Policy
The Obama administration on Thursday once again warned Syria it would not tolerate the use of chemical weapons, amid reports that Bashiral-Assad’s forces have begun mixing sarin gas that could be used in conventional shells. But the U.S. military may have few realistic options to strike and eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons, if Washington deems that a necessary step, without potentially causing major health concerns to those weapons sites and their surrounding populations. The administration has long said it does not want the military to intervene in Syria’s civil war, even as casualties from the use of conventional weapons have topped 40,000 people, by some estimates. But officials say the threat of chemical weapons opens up both a reason, and for some, legal permission, for outside military forces to strike.

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