9/6/13

10 things that could go badly wrong in an attack on Syria

Ezra Klein in The Washington Post predicts 10 things that could go badly wrong with a US attack on Syria:
  • Heavy civilian casualties from a misdirected missile
  • Increasing slaughter of civilians as Assad increases intimidation to stay in power
  • Assad doubles down using chemical weapons again to intimidate Syrians and to show defiance against the U.S.A
  • The attack is so slight that it allows Assad to emerge virtually unscathed
  • A bombing campaign will firmly involve us in Syria. It will make it much harder for us to say that what happens in Syria is not our problem.
  • Reprisal against US civilians by forces sympathetic to Assad
  • Assad falls and chemical weapons end up in the wrong hands.
  • Assad falls and chaos follows
  • Assad falls as is followed by something worse, like an Al-Qaida affiliate     More    [BJS]