{"id":14418,"date":"2012-11-29T15:59:32","date_gmt":"2012-11-29T22:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14418"},"modified":"2012-11-29T15:59:32","modified_gmt":"2012-11-29T22:59:32","slug":"u-s-weighs-bolder-effort-to-intervene-in-syrias-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14418","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Weighs Bolder Effort to Intervene in Syria\u2019s Conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. Weighs Bolder Effort to Intervene in Syria\u2019s Conflict<\/strong>
\nBy DAVID E. SANGER and ERIC SCHMITT – 28 November, 2012 – NYT<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Obama administration, hoping that the conflict in Syria has reached a turning point, is considering deeper intervention to help push President Bashar al-Assad from power, according to government officials involved in the discussions.<\/p>\n

While no decisions have been made, the administration is considering several alternatives, including directly providing arms to some opposition fighters.<\/p>\n

The most urgent decision, likely to come next week, is whether NATO should deploy surface-to-air missiles in Turkey, ostensibly to protect that country from Syrian missiles that could carry chemical weapons. The State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, said Wednesday that the Patriot missile system would not be \u201cfor use beyond the Turkish border.\u201d<\/p>\n

But some strategists and administration officials believe that Syrian Air Force pilots might fear how else the missile batteries could be used. If so, they could be intimidated from bombing the northern Syrian border towns where the rebels control considerable territory. A NATO survey team is in Turkey, examining possible sites for the batteries.<\/p>\n

Other, more distant options include directly providing arms to opposition fighters rather than only continuing to use other countries, especially Qatar, to do so. A riskier course would be to insert C.I.A. officers or allied intelligence services on the ground in Syria, to work more closely with opposition fighters in areas that they now largely control.<\/p>\n

Administration officials discussed all of these steps before the presidential election. But the combination of President Obama\u2019s re-election, which has made the White House more willing to take risks, and a series of recent tactical successes by rebel forces, one senior administration official said, \u201chas given this debate a new urgency, and a new focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

The outcome of the broader debate about how heavily America should intervene in another Middle Eastern conflict remains uncertain. Mr. Obama\u2019s record in intervening in the Arab Spring has been cautious: While he joined in what began as a humanitarian effort in Libya, he refused to put American military forces on the ground and, with the exception of a C.I.A. and diplomatic presence, ended the American role as soon as Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi was toppled.<\/p>\n

In the case of Syria, a far more complex conflict than Libya\u2019s, some officials continue to worry that the risks of intervention \u2014 both in American lives and in setting off a broader conflict, potentially involving Turkey \u2014 are too great to justify action. Others argue that more aggressive steps are justified in Syria by the loss in life there, the risks that its chemical weapons could get loose, and the opportunity to deal a blow to Iran\u2019s only ally in the region. The debate now coursing through the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department and the C.I.A. resembles a similar one among America\u2019s main allies.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, let\u2019s be frank, what we\u2019ve done over the last 18 months hasn\u2019t been enough,\u201d Britain\u2019s prime minister, David Cameron, said three weeks ago after visiting a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan. \u201cThe slaughter continues, the bloodshed is appalling, the bad effects it\u2019s having on the region, the radicalization, but also the humanitarian crisis that is engulfing Syria. So let\u2019s work together on really pushing what more we can do.\u201d Mr. Cameron has discussed those options directly with Mr. Obama, White House officials say. …more<\/a><\/p>\n

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U.S. Weighs Bolder Effort to Intervene in Syria\u2019s Conflict By DAVID E. SANGER and ERIC SCHMITT – 28 November, 2012 – NYT WASHINGTON \u2014 The Obama administration, hoping that the conflict in Syria has reached a turning point, is considering deeper intervention to help push President Bashar al-Assad from power, according to government officials involved more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[2000],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14418"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14418"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14420,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14418\/revisions\/14420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}