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U.S. military beginning review of Syria options
CNN ^ | February 7th, 2012 07:28 PM ET | By Barbara Starr

Posted on 02/08/2012 10:11:00 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach

Although the U.S. focus remains on exerting diplomatic and economic pressure on Syria, the Pentagon and the U.S. Central Command have begun a preliminary internal review of U.S. military capabilities, CNN has learned.

The options are being prepared in the event President Barack Obama were to call for them. Two senior administration officials who spoke about the review to CNN emphasized that U.S. policy for now remains the use of non-military options.

The focus on diplomatic options was underscored by the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in an interview with CNN on Tuesday.

"Before we start talking about military options, we very much want to ensure that we have exhausted all the political, economic and diplomatic means at our disposal," Ambassador Susan Rice said on CNN's “Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”

The president has also said that the U.S. is working on non-military options first.

"I think it is very important for us to try to resolve this without recourse to outside military intervention, and I think that's possible," Obama said in an interview with NBC News that aired during the Super Bowl on Sunday.

But the military is beginning to look at what can be done. One of the senior U.S. officials called the effort a “scoping exercise” to see what capabilities are available given other U.S. military commitments in the region.

(Excerpt) Read more at security.blogs.cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: iran; syria
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H/T to the Drudge Report.

Hillary Photo with War Drums

As the caption....

The Major headline tonight!

1 posted on 02/08/2012 10:11:10 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Ron Paul will have a cow when he hears this.


2 posted on 02/08/2012 10:12:31 PM PST by entropy12 (Islam is intolerant of every other religion. Western countries are finally learning this.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

There is not many options. Iran has been sending in their Qods force to aid Syrian forces.The Iranian regime agreed to provide $23 million to construct a military base in Latakia, Syria following a June 2011 meeting in Tehran between Syrian deputy vice president Muhammad Nasif Kheirbek and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force commander Qassem Suleimani. The base, to be built by the end of 2012, will house IRGC officers who will coordinate weapons shipments from Iran to Syria. According to a Western security official.


3 posted on 02/08/2012 10:14:10 PM PST by U-238
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Another war?

Is this what it felt like, in the last days of the Roman empire?


4 posted on 02/08/2012 10:15:52 PM PST by Cringing Negativism Network (What if Obama isn't the anti-Christ after all? What if it's Romney?...)
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To: Cringing Negativism Network

We’re in deep guano.

0bama is a nightmare.


5 posted on 02/08/2012 10:19:49 PM PST by unkus (Silence Is Consent)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

The Warmonger President.


6 posted on 02/08/2012 10:22:20 PM PST by Berlin_Freeper (NEWT GINGRICH 2012)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

7 posted on 02/08/2012 10:31:17 PM PST by TonyInOhio (Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour)
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To: U-238; NormsRevenge; Marine_Uncle; SandRat
Related thread with a catchy headline:

Report: Iranian Special Forces Are Marching Into Syria

8 posted on 02/08/2012 10:39:04 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach ( Support Geert Wilders)
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To: entropy12

“Ron Paul will have a cow when he hears this.”

Yeahh,, so will I.
There are NO critical US interests there.
No matter which side wins there, we will be left with a Jew hating/ America hating islamic dicatorship with no oil or trade interaction with America.
Why in hell would we spend a single Dollar, or a single precious life of a soldier to fight there?
FOR WHAT?

Let em kill each other,, more air for me to breathe.


9 posted on 02/08/2012 10:45:39 PM PST by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office)
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To: entropy12

“Ron Paul will have a cow when he hears this.”

Yeahh,, so will I.
There are NO critical US interests there.
No matter which side wins there, we will be left with a Jew hating/ America hating islamic dicatorship with no oil or trade interaction with America.
Why in hell would we spend a single Dollar, or a single precious life of a soldier to fight there?
FOR WHAT?

Let em kill each other,, more air for me to breathe.


10 posted on 02/08/2012 10:46:12 PM PST by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office)
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To: U-238

So we NEED to intervene there? Is your account one of those whitehouse social networking accounts designed to help steer public opinion towards administration goals?


11 posted on 02/08/2012 10:49:22 PM PST by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office)
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To: DesertRhino
Why in hell would we spend a single Dollar, or a single precious life of a soldier to fight there? FOR WHAT?

Obama is assisting the area and helping to install a caliphate. The men taken out so far have been 'secular' leaders and replaced with: Islamic fundamentalists

Syria's Assad is a secular leader and those poor rioting peeps are radical fundamentalists.

Syria may be very interesting since Russia and China are basically backing Assad.

12 posted on 02/08/2012 10:53:48 PM PST by Outlaw Woman (The 2nd Amendment IS my concealed carry permit)
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To: DesertRhino; NormsRevenge; Marine_Uncle; SandRat
Just posted this:

International 'militarisation' in Syria growing closer, warns US official

From the State Dept.

13 posted on 02/08/2012 10:56:02 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach ( Support Geert Wilders)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

The Warmonger President.


And he gets to decimate the US Military at the same time. He’s loving all this.


14 posted on 02/08/2012 11:00:27 PM PST by unkus (Silence Is Consent)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

THERE ARE NO MILITARY OPTIONS FOR THE US IN SYRIA!
1.Syria is not attacking the US
2.They are not attacking an ally or a National Interest
3. No current evidence exists indicating they are sending terrorists to attack us or our interests.

No more getting our guys killed to turn countries over to muslims.....
You want to attack Syria take it over and do some Marshall Plan OK.
Otherwise stay the hell out...


15 posted on 02/08/2012 11:11:54 PM PST by SECURE AMERICA (Where can I sign up for the New American Revolution and the Crusades 2012?)
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To: SECURE AMERICA

See thread linked at post # 13.


16 posted on 02/08/2012 11:23:32 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach ( Support Geert Wilders)
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To: DesertRhino

The Qods Force is there aiding the Syrians. The Syrians and the Iranians have been allies for a very long time. They both support Hizbollah.


17 posted on 02/08/2012 11:35:05 PM PST by U-238
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Both sides of the affair want to kill us, so let ‘em kill each other.


18 posted on 02/09/2012 12:39:33 AM PST by El Gato ("The second amendment is the reset button of the US constitution"-Doug McKay)
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To: Cringing Negativism Network

“Is this what it felt like, in the last days of the Roman empire?”

Probably very similar.

In any case, Obama is an absolute nightmare - he’s planning to unseat the dictator of Syria, who holds the unruly country together and does us little or no harm, while he waffles on Iran, which is pledged to destroy Israel and attack the US... with nukes!

If not the last days of Rome, then certainly the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.

And at least as depressing is that a substantial minority of Americans still like him.

Wonder how they’ll feel when their kids glow in the dark... probably they’ll blame George Bush.


19 posted on 02/09/2012 12:50:13 AM PST by Jack Hammer
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Syria and Iran remain the two last leading conventional overt figures against US interests in the region building WMD capabilities. Once those two are gone, it will provide US to gain access into Central Asia.


20 posted on 02/09/2012 2:08:09 AM PST by Wiz
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