Syria: Obama promises military action in Syria won’t be ‘repeat of Iraq’

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama tamped down fears about U.S. entanglement in a deepening Mideast quagmire Wednesday, insisting any American payback for Syrian chemical weapons use would “not be a repeat of Iraq.”

Stressing that he has “not made a decision” yet on ordering airstrikes against the Assad regime, Obama told PBS any such action would be “limited” and “tailored” to ensure the U.S. does not get “drawn into a long conflict.”

Instead, he said, the approach he is weighing would “send a shot across the bow to say, ‘Stop doing this,’ ” and thereby contain the Syrian civil war to conventional, though brutal, weaponry.

“Nobody — or, hardly anybody — disputes that chemical weapons were used on a large scale against civilian populations,” said Obama, referring to overnight attacks last week on the outskirts of Damascus that are believed to have killed hundreds of people.

Obama cited as-yet-undisclosed evidence, including rocket technology unavailable to the Syrian opposition fighters, saying, “We have concluded that the Syrian government carried these out.”

The U.S. has “no interest in an open-ended conflict,” said Obama. “But we do have to make sure they are held accountable.”

But even as Obama’s comments were broadcast Wednesday night, the drumbeat for rapid retaliatory strikes appeared to be quieting in the face of demands for clear evidence of Syrian complicity.

The spectre of Iraq — and the intelligence errors that led both the U.S. and U.K. to rush to war a decade ago in search of weapons of mass destruction that did not exist — seemed to hover over both sides of the Atlantic as the effort to mobilize for Syria slowed.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who recalled Parliament for an emergency debate Thursday on military action, defused revolt by pushing back a vote until Tuesday at the earliest, removing the possibility of weekend strikes, as originally planned.

In Washington, meanwhile, the cautionary notes included a demand from Republican House Speaker John Boehner that Obama “clearly articulate to the American people and Congress his objectives, policy and strategy for any potential intervention in Syria.”

Former U.S. defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, an architect of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, joined the chorus of critics, telling Fox News the Obama administration has not yet made the case for intervention.

“One thing that is very interesting, it seems to me, is that there really hasn’t been any indication from the administration as to what our national interest is with respect to this particular situation,” said Rumsfeld.

In Ottawa, the prospect of active Canadian involvement in any military strikes faded significantly, with Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird pointing to the absence of armed drones and cruise missiles — the likely weapons of choice in any punitive action — from Canada’s military arsenal. A NATO source privy to negotiations among allies was quoted by The Canadian Press as saying Canada’s role would likely be “only symbolic.”

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged restraint to give UN inspectors time to finish their investigation, which began Monday. Meanwhile, Syria’s ambassador to the UN claimed the rebels launched three chemical weapons attacks against soldiers in the Damascus suburbs on Aug. 22, 24 and 25, the Associated Press reported. He demanded that the UN inspectors extend their investigation to include those attacks.

Discomfort was also apparent among aid organizations, with MÉdecins Sans FrontiÈres (Doctors Without Borders) issuing a statement warning the U.S. and other governments to stop citing its medical information as “undeniable” evidence of Syrian government responsibility.

The aid group is aware of at least 3,600 patients “displaying neurotoxic symptoms, of which 355 died,” the statement said. But the group stressed it has no scientific confirmation of a toxic agent, nor is it in a position to determine responsibility.

“Now that an investigation is underway by UN inspectors, MSF rejects that our statement be used as a substitute for the investigation or as a justification for military action,” the group said.

Both the U.S. and U.K. are expected to make public more comprehensive intelligence dossiers detailing evidence of chemical attacks as early as Thursday.

In the meantime, leaks from Washington continue to raise new questions of their own. Late Tuesday, Foreign Policy magazine cited an unidentified U.S. intelligence official as saying the U.S. intercepted “panicked phone calls” in the hours following last Wednesday’s events. An Assad defence official spoke to a leader of a chemical weapons unit, the magazine said, demanding answers “for a nerve agent strike that killed more than 1,000 people.”

The calls are part of the trove of evidence that gives the Obama administration confidence the gas attacks came from the regime, despite its many denials. But they also appear to leave doubt as to whether the action was co-ordinated by senior Syrian officials.

“We don’t know exactly why it happened,” the U.S. intelligence official was quoted as saying. “We just know it was pretty f--king stupid.”