Consider this an update on the earlier post from today. Syrian strikes sooner rather then later: Israeli intel lights the way. Iran? To get up to speed you might want to read there firstIf this latest report is accurate, what has changed?Was it the NATO non assistance?Fox News and there is a video there you may wish to take in
Any U.S. strike against Syria is “likely to last hours not days” and probably would not come before the British Parliament votes on military action Thursday, a senior U.S. defense official told Fox News. Sources tell Fox that a strike would be led by the U.S. Navy and its assets positioned in the Eastern Mediterranean and that it would be limited in scope.
Four U.S. Navy destroyers are in position, along with at least one nuclear-powered submarine. A British submarine is also available if Britain’s Parliament approves military action. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke to his British and French counterparts by phone Tuesday during a trip to Asia. In an interview with the BBC, he said the U.S. military was in position and “ready to go.” According to U.S. military officials, there are no plans in the initial mission to strike or secure President Bashar Assad's chemical weapons, which are spread among 50 different sites, some of which are underground.
Wait a minute, I thought this was punishment for daring to use chemical weapons? You know the ones that Syria didn't use?
In fact it is not even possible, experts say, to use air strikes to carry out surgical strikes on chemical weapons storage facilities, despite suggestions from some U.S. legislators in weekend interviews that that be the preferred action. Air strikes would release those toxic chemicals into the air, potentially causing more mass casualties.
“It seems to me that what we're looking at here is sort of shock and awe light,” said Retired Major General Bob Scales, a Fox News military analyst and former commandant of the Army War College. “That is a simple cruise missile strike from mostly sea-delivered platforms launched outside the umbrella of Syrian air defense intended to strike high visibility targets like command and control or perhaps some missile and weapon placements.”
The current goal, according to a senior U.S. defense official, "is to deter the regime from using chemical weapons in the future and to degrade its capabilities...we have a military solution for that." (baloney)
Pentagon officials confirm that strike plans do not include regime change, so there is little need for waves of air or missile strikes over several days. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Martin Dempsey has said repeatedly that "there is no military solution" for regime change in Syria. According to one senior U.S. defense official, in response to reports that a window to strike could open as early as Thursday, "the window to strike is open now from a military perspective. The decision about timing is political."
The decision about timing is political. As I mentioned the other day. In this post: Use of Force against Syria just days away? It looks that way.Changing the situation on the ground for the NATO IDF Islamic Troops
NATO has called an emergency meeting in Brussels on Wednesday. No decision to strike is likely to be made before then.