Talk of Strike on Syria Moves From ‘Will It Happen?’ to When
With U.S. officials saying there’s little doubt that President Bashar Assad’s regime used chemical weapons on the Syrian people last week, and with U.S. Navy ships moving toward that country’s coast, it now seems to be a question of “when” not “whether” America will strike military targets inside that nation.
On ‘Morning Edition’: Aaron David Miller speaks with Renee Montagne about the situation in Syria
On ‘Morning Edition’: NPR’s Larry Abramson talks with David Greene about the military options
That was the analysis Monday on Morning Edition from Aaron David Miller, a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a Washington, D.C.-based research center.
What would be the goal of a strike in coming days — most likely cruise missiles fired at “command and control” centers of the Syrian military?
“I suspect it will not be an effort to fundamentally change the battlefield balance,” Miller told Morning Edition host Renee Montagne. “In effect, it will try to be a strike that looks to alter Assad’s behavior, not the regime itself.”
One reason the U.S. and its allies might not try to topple Assad with any missile strikes is that the forces fighting his regime include militant Islamists who swear allegiance to terrorist groups such as al-Qaida.
More: Talk of Strike on Syria Moves From ‘Will It Happen?’ to When : The Two-Way : NPR