eklavya wrote:
What exactly do YOU think the US should do in the face of this crime? Nothing?
Would that make you feel better: 1,400 people gassed to death and do nothing?
How will history judge Obama and the US if 1,400 people are gassed to death and they do nothing?
Eklavya,
There's two elements to the Assad's use of chemical weapons that any US president has to deal with.
a) Maintaining the global taboo on WMD usage. In the case of chemical weapons, the taboo managed to survive the enormous levels of use in the Iran-Iraq war in combat, including the massacre of Iraqi Kurds at Halabja and other attacks in the Anfal campaign. Despite that the CWC treaty, and the disarming of Iraq and Libya mean that fewer states have chemical weapons than ever before.
Now if Assad had used chemical weapons on US forces, or on allies with which the US had treaty obligations, there would have to be massive and overwhelming retaliation. But third party use? A mix of public condemnations, evidence gathering, diplomatic pressure, private threats and covert action (perhaps in concert with the Israelis) would have probably been a wiser course of action. Because all the evidence suggests that it will be no more and no less effective than fly swatting, but without the risks of painting the US into a corner that it can only get out of by wading into the mess.
b) The war crimes aspect, for deliberate massacres of civilians. This attack would be just one of hundreds, perhaps thousands of massacres by the regime conducted with automatic weapons, blades, artillery and bombs. If the idea is R2P, then the US has to commit to regime change, not just fly swatting on chemical weapons. Or it can restrict itself to documenting crimes, and work towards isolation of the regime and helping prepare ICC charges.
In short, either go all out, or avoid overt military action. This inbetween option is worse than useless. It is a poorly thought out political move for a domestic audience which will not serve either international justice or US national security interests.