The U.S. military is in the final stages of preparation for missile strikes on Syria, but experts say any military operations there will likely be short-lived and have minimal impact on the Pentagon’s plans for the future.
Top U.S. officials have been clear, almost emphatic, that any air strikes on the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are not intended to alter the balance of power in the two-year-old Syrian civil war. The Pentagon’s top brass fears that massive military strikes will empower the Islamic extremist groups who are now a key pillar of the Syrian rebel forces and are linked to the same insurgent groups that were killing U.S. troops in nearby Iraq just a few years ago.
Instead, the main U.S. goal is to mete out some punishment for the Syrian dictator for using chemical weapons against civilians. In effect, it’s backing up President Obama’s remark in August 2012 that using chemical weapons was a “red line” that would “change my equation” about military involvement in Syria.
For now the military is standing by for a final order from the White House, and many defense officials expect an operation that will involve Navy ships launching dozens of Tomahawk missiles at Syrian targets. That could start this weekend or early next week, according to several unofficial reports.
“A limited air campaign to achieve some limited ends — I think that is where we may be headed,” said Mark Gunzinger, a defense expert at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a think tank in Washington/.../
Yet in some ways, the operation under discussion tracks with the priorities the Pentagon has outlined in recent years — a fundamental shift from boots-on-the-ground missions to using stand-off capabilities.
“This is all about the use of air and naval power and perhaps some special operations forces as well,” Gunzinger said.
“To conduct a limited campaign against a state that is armed with some pretty formidable air defenses ... this might be the wave of the future,” he said.
Many experts agree that the Syrian operations are unlikely to affect the budget battles in Washington and the spending caps known as sequestration that have forced the Defense Department to cancel training programs, impose civilian furloughs and debate priorities for future weapons modernization programs.