September 8, 2013 by David K. Sutton
Dear President Obama, What Are The Goals Of Attacking Syria?
Dear President Obama,
What are the goals of U.S. military action in Syria? It seems the two main goals, at least publicly stated by your administration, is that military strikes in Syria are meant to severely impact Bashar al-Assad’s ability to use chemical weapons and to begin to set up the conditions that will ultimately lead to his ouster. But of course a third goal is for America to send a “strong message” to Assad and the world that the United States is ready and willing to use it’s powerful military when we are crossed. I know you will never publicly state it the way I just did, but it’s pretty obvious to many Americans and much of the world that the United States uses it’s military (approximately every 40 months for the past 50 years) to send messages around the globe.
But even if we push aside that third less public goal, I question the effectiveness of those first two goals. If this is supposed to be a limited military strike, with no ground troops, how do you ensure Assad can no longer use chemical weapons? And how will these strikes move Syria one step closer to regime change? You are set to address the nation on Tuesday evening, and those are the questions I want answered. No more beating of the war drum. You must explain to America how you believe military action will accomplish these two goals.
I’m not saying it’s likely I’ll change my mind, as I believe there are alternatives to war, but I think you owe this to America. We are owed a detailed breakdown of how American military action will effect change on chemical weapons and regime change. In absence of that, I fall back to that third, less publicly stated goal, that this is more about America saving face.
A concerned citizen,
David K. Sutton
