A U.S.-led military strike against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria could begin soon in response to the Assad regime’s large-scale use of chemical weapons on its own people last week. The reported elements of this proportionate response are designed to respond to the Assad regime’s chemical-weapons violation and to avoid enmeshing the United States more deeply in Syria’s multisided conflict.
In response to the first reports of small-scale chemical-weapons use in Syria last April, the Center for American Progress advocated a multifaceted approach to guide a U.S. response. This response included three major components:
- Demand an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on the Assad regime’s likely chemical-weapons use to help validate the facts.
- Engage NATO and regional partners in planning the U.S. response, which would aim to destroy “appropriate military targets, including delivery systems, logistics, and applicable command and control.”
- Request that NATO and other allies begin planning for a major multinational refugee relief mission in Jordan.
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