All options remain on the table for Syria, the White House said. But President Obama has lack of interest in U.S. war plans for invading Syria prepared by Pentagon, military officials said. With this lackluster attitude, it is more likely that forces will not get involved military, the officials said.
Mayhem in Syria is getting worse daily. In a year’s time President Assad attacked his own people, leaving more than 6,000 estimated dead. What’s more, the latest high-profile deaths of two western journalists have compounded attention to the violence happenings.
In case of military action, one of the Pentagon’s war plans will be to destroy Syria's air defenses and the following establishment of a no-fly zone, the officials said.
On Tuesday, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., calls on the State Department to arm the opposition, yet on Thursday, officials appeared to downplay that possibility.
The White House chose to ending the Syrian crisis with political pressure, Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters traveling with the president. Further militarization will lead to a
dangerous and chaotic path, Carney added. Officials in the Pentagon said that military plans for larger-scale military operations could be submitted to the president by the Joint Chiefs of Staff on a moment’s notice but the president is right to be careful. Arming Syrian oppositions is much different from the one in Libya. One disturbing phenomenon to consider is the presence of extremists who have infiltrated the opposition groups and believed to have links with Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Another difference is that Syria has four times the population of Libya on one-tenth the landscape. And Syria has a larger and better-equipped military than Libya.