Obama Faces Growing Calls to Act Over Syria Gas Attack Claims

President Barack Obama on Thursday
faced growing calls at home and abroad
for forceful action against the Syrian
government over accusations that it
carried out a massive deadly chemical
weapons attack.

While the White House said it was
“appalled” by reports of hundreds of
people gassed near Damascus on
Wednesday, it made clear that any U.S.
response must await confirmation of the
attack and again demanded that Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad give U.N.
inspectors immediate access to the sites
of the alleged attacks.

The Obama administration's cautious
response underscored a reluctance by
Washington to intervene in Syria since
the country's civil war erupted 2-1/2
years ago.

But if allegations of a large-scale
chemical attack are verified, Obama will
surely face heavy pressure to act more
aggressively, possibly even with military
force, in response to repeated violations
of U.S. “red lines.”
The consensus in Washington and allied
capitals is that a concerted international
response can only succeed if the United
States takes the lead. But Obama has
shown no appetite for intervention,
mindful of opinion polls showing most
Americans opposed to a new military
entanglements in the Muslim world.

Despite that, pressure was mounting as
horrific photos and videos of alleged
chemical weapons victims spread
across the Internet.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius
said world powers must respond with
force if allegations that Syria's
government was responsible for the
deadliest chemical attack on civilians in
a quarter-century prove true. But even
Fabius stressed there was no question
of sending in troops on the ground.

Britain, too, said no option should be
ruled out “that might save innocent lives
in Syria.” And Turkey said “all red lines”
had been crossed in Syria and criticized
international inaction.

Israel said it believed Syrian forces had
used chemical weapons in the killing of
hundreds of people in the rebel-held
suburbs of Damascus, and it accused
the world of turning a blind eye to such
attacks.

In Washington, the Syrian opposition's
claims of a horrific gas attack by
Assad's loyalists sparked new calls for
action from Capitol Hill.
The latest Syria controversy has added
to a growing perception of foreign policy
troubles for Obama early in his second
term. He is facing criticism for his
inability to influence Egyptian generals
in that country's political crisis and for
failing to persuade Russia to extradite
fugitive former spy agency contractor
Edward Snowden.

Pressing ahead on Thursday with a two-
day bus tour in the Northeast to promote
his economic agenda, Obama made no
mention of Syria in his first public
appearance.
“The fact that we are doing this bus tour
is an indication that the president has
his priorities straight while he continues
to monitor what is an increasingly tragic
situation in Syria,” White House
spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.

McCain calls for 'decisive action'
Republican Senator John McCain said
the “credible reports” from Syria
suggesting that Assad's forces had
escalated their use of chemical weapons
“should shock our collective
conscience.”
McCain, one of the most influential
voices in Congress on foreign policy
matters and a harsh critic of Obama's
Syria policy, said U.S. inaction would
encourage other governments to use
harsh measures against their own
people.

“It is long past time for the United
States and our friends and allies to
respond to Assad's continuing mass
atrocities in Syria with decisive actions,
including limited military strikes to
degrade Assad's air power and ballistic
missile capabilities,” he said in a
statement.

Both Democratic and Republican
congressional aides expressed
frustration with what they deem the
Obama administration's failure to
communicate with members of the
Senate and House of Representatives on
the crisis in Syria, except for members
of the intelligence committees.
Democratic Senator Robert Menendez,
chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, said he was
“shocked and deeply concerned” about
the reported chemical weapons attack
and the United Nations should
investigate.

But he stopped short of calling for
military action.
The top U.S. military officer, Joint Chiefs
chairman General Martin Dempsey,
canceled a planned press briefing on
security issues on Thursday.
Dempsey,
in letters to U.S. lawmakers, has made
clear the armed forces judge that
intervention in Syria would be costly and
have an uncertain outcome.
Many members of Congress also have
expressed deep concern about U.S.
involvement in the Syrian crisis, worried
that weapons sent to the rebels fighting
to oust Assad could end up in the hands
of militants who would use them against
the United States and its allies.

Syrian authorities have called
allegations against their forces “illogical
and fabricated,” pointing to the timing of
the attack and their previous assertions
that, if they possessed chemical
weapons, they would never use them
against Syrians.
Key Assad ally Moscow pointed the
finger at a “provocation” by rebels keen
to draw in Western military assistance.

The Obama administration has joined
with other countries in demanding that
Assad allow a U.N. chemical weapons
team already on the ground in Syria to
do its work.
White House spokesman Earnest said
the way for the Syrian government to
prove its denials is “to allow the U.N.
team full access to the site to try to get
to the bottom of what happened.”
Unless U.N. inspectors are able to
conduct an on-site investigation, it could
take some time for U.S. officials to sift
through photographs, video and
intelligence to determine whether the
Syrian opposition's reports are credible.
An earlier U.S. investigation of alleged
Syrian chemical weapons use took
months to conclude that Assad's forces
had used small amounts of sarin gas in
attacks during the previous year.

President Barack Obama