The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted Wednesday afternoon to expand a use-of-force resolution by specifying the goal of U.S. military intervention in Syria should be to bolster the Free Syrian Army.
The successful amendment, sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a leading Senate voice on national security matters, and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), also states the aim of U.S. strikes should be to reduce the ability of Syrian President Bashar Assad to use chemical weapons.
The committee adopted two McCain-Coons amendments by voice vote.
One states that the U.S. strategy toward Syria should aim “to degrade the capabilities of the Assad regime to use weapons of mass destruction while upgrading the lethal and non-lethal military capabilities of vetted elements of Syrian opposition forces.”
The second reiterated that it is U.S. policy that Assad’s departure from power, an end to violence, and a negotiated political settlement are prerequisites for regional peace and security.
The votes pave the way for the committee to pass Wednesday afternoon a resolution authorizing military force against Assad’s government.
The committee adopted two McCain-Coons amendments by voice vote.
McCain’s Ammendment...:
......that the U.S. ‘strategy’ toward Syria should aim “to degrade the capabilities of the Assad regime to use weapons of mass destruction while upgrading the lethal and non-lethal military capabilities of vetted elements of Syrian opposition forces.”
He needs lessons:
“Surprise”…. is to be regarded as a substantive principle in itself, on account of its moral effect..... When it is successful in a high degree, confusion and broken courage in the enemy’s ranks are the consequences; and of the degree to which these multiply a success, there are examples enough, great and small.”
In modern terms, US Joint Publication 3-0, Joint Operations, counsels commanders to seize the initiative in order to
“Shock, demoralize, and disrupt the enemy immediately.... to seize and maintain the initiative, deny the enemy the opportunity to achieve its objectives, and generate in the enemy a sense of inevitable failure and defeat.”
The US has waited so long to respond to the chemical weapons attacks that it has effectively ceded any advantages of surprise and initiative to the Assad regime. The Assad regime knows an attack is coming or is likely to come in the near future. In addition to the overall forewarning of attack, the Assad regime is likely to get detailed updates from the Russian Navy as soon as the US Navy launches a TLAM attack.
So now we are taking sides--something Obama said we weren't doing in terms of regime change and this military action.