US Still Sees ‘Military Option’ Against Syria

Aid to Rebels Just the Beginning

Publicly, President Obama and other officials have lamented the lack of an obvious military solution to the civil war in Syria. Privately, and sometimes not so privately, they’ve continued pushing forward with plans for direct military intervention in Syria.

Based in Jordan, US troops started funneling Saudi-bought weapons to the rebels, but that’s not the end of the intervention, as the US military is feverishly constructing runways for military aircraft along the Jordan-Syria border, nominally for “reconnaissance aircraft.”

Recently though, officials have talked of the possibility of launching air strikes against targets inside Syria, attacking al-Qaeda-linked rebels as well as government targets, and insinuating the US as yet another belligerent force in the already complex civil war.

President Obama intended a full-scale invasion of Syria last year, but was foiled by overwhelming public opposition to the war. The plan now seems to be to pretend a war is not in the offing while advancing it every chance they get, hoping that they can get the war more or less under way before anyone has a chance to object.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.