One of the reasons I've been in favor of the supporting the rebels in Syria route all along is that it avoids the problem of not seeking Congressional approval of military action which lessens our national ability to carry on the struggle for any period of time; and it avoids the problem of seeking that approval when you might not get it and then hand Assad a victory in the pages of the Congressional Record.
Instead, we let this war spiral out of control without serious efforts to bend it to outcomes better for us to the point where it seems like our direct intervention is the only way to keep things from getting worse--whether your version of worse is for the Middle East, the war on terror, America's reputation, the president's reputation, or the president's ability to get his domestic agenda moving.
Face it, if we had supported non-jihadi rebels early on, nobody would be having fits over seeking Congressional or UN approval, or anguishing over their past positions on those questions.
UPDATE: Austin Bay discusses Syria and Strategypage discusses stand-off attack options.
VOA discusses assets in the theater:
USS Truman just took responsibility for CENTCOM's carrier missions from USS Nimitz, meaning that until Nimitz leaves for home, we have two carriers to either participate in the attacks or act as a warning to Iran to stay quiet. So this is a good time to do something from that perspective.
And we might want to strike before Russia gets naval assets close to Syria:
Interfax quoted a source in the armed forces' general staff as saying Russia, Syria's most powerful ally, was deploying a missile cruiser from the Black Sea Fleet and a large anti-submarine ship from the Northern Fleet in the "coming days".
And it will take more days to get in position. I don't think they'd fight us--that would be beyond insane. But they could warn Syria of our ship and sub movements and otherwise get in our way to annoy us.
Syria still has some long-range anti-ship missiles that an Israeli raid missed. I don't know how specific the Russians would have to be on telling Assad where our ships are to fire off those missiles and count on them acquiring the targets when they get close. Best to stay well out of range, just in case.
