Published on The National Interest (http://nationalinterest.org)

Source URL (retrieved on Aug 29, 2013): http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/dont-attack-syria-8975

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Don't Attack Syria

August 29, 2013

Dov S. Zakheim [2]

For all his stirring rhetoric about ending America's decade of war, President Obama appears intent on extending it for several years more. A missile strike against Syrian targets will not result in Bashar Assad's removal from power any more than the Clinton-era strikes against Afghanistan and Sudan resulted in regime change in those countries. On the other hand, full-scale Western intervention in the Syrian civil war, at a minimum along the lines of the 2011 operation against Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, will provide Russia on the one hand, and Iran and Hezbollah on the other, the excuse for even more intense and open support of the Assad regime. Indeed, Hezbollah, with Iranian connivance, is likely to retaliate against American military or even civilian targets elsewhere in the world.