The White House announced that the US action in Syria will have “no objective whatsoever.”
Then what's the point? He is planning a military strike against the Syrian government to deter future uses of chemical weapons. That is an objective.
He then goes on to say “Let me be clear,” he said in an interview on CNN. “Our goal will not be to effect régime change, or alter the balance of power in Syria, or bring the civil war there to an end. We will simply do something random there for one or two days and then leave.”
You cannot initiate a military strike against one side without helping the other side. If we strike against the Syrian government to disable their military functions then we are weakening them and helping the rebels. You cannot weaken one side of an equation without a change in the balance of power. Any strike will alter the balance of power and he knows this. There is an objective to this strike to create a change.
Allow me to vent for a minute. We don't like either side of the war in Syria and we really have no national self interest in Syria. Why go? I understand that they used chemical weapons and that is crossing the line and it needs to be dealt with, but why by us? Let one of the other world powers take this one. We don't have to be the world police all the time. The problem with going to Syria isn't with the country itself, it's with it's allies. Iran doesn't like us and has warned us against striking against Syria, Russia has a naval base in Syria and has warned us against military action against Syria, China has stepped up and told us not to take military action against Syria. We are going to cause these other world powers to side against us if we go through with a military strike in Syria. These three countries like each other more than they like us. We cannot afford to go up against these other countries, that is a war that we cannot win. Dealing with Syria runs the risk of creating a much, much bigger problem and is not worth the risk.
