Levin Says US Should Consider Limited Military Strikes on Syria
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Carl Levin says only increased US support for vetted rebel groups can level the Syrian playing field and allow for a political settlement.
The influential chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said Wednesday, July 10, that the administration of President Barack Obama should prepare to target Syrian “airfields, airplanes and massed artillery” using stand-off weapons in addition to arming and training the opposition to the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Levin, who just returned from a lengthy visit to the Middle East, said only increased US support for vetted rebel groups could level the playing field with Assad and his Russian, Iranian and Hezbollah allies and lay the ground for a political settlement. These limited but “essential steps,” he said, afford “the best hope and perhaps the only hope” to end a two-year-old conflict that is threatening US national interests by destabilizing Syria’s neighbors and creating potential “safe havens” in Syria for anti-US extremists.
