[Fionnuala Sweeney:] Tonight on Connect the World, as the U.S. warns of yet another massacre in Syria activists are demanding to know why the international community won't intervene. Tonight, I'll speak with two army generals including a former NATO commander about the unique challenges Syria poses militarily and what it will take for the world to act.
[Announcer:] Live from CNN Center, this is Connect the World.
[Sweeney:] Also tonight, Britain's prime minister makes headline news after accidentally leaving his young daughter behind in the clubs. And the muscles from Majorca sets a new world record, Rafael Nadal wins his seventh French Open title and tells CNN all about it. As violence intensifies across Syria there are fears tonight that another massacre could be imminent. Activists report fierce new shelling attacks on Homs, attacks that appear verified by amateur video. They also say the regime is now using helicopter gunships to fire on several towns, including al Heffah. Special envoy Kofi Annan is demanding Syria allow UN monitors into al Heffah after reports that tanks are now massing on the town's edge. The United States joins Annan today saying it fears another massacre.
[Victoria Nuland, U.s. State Department Spokesperson:] That the regime may be organizing another massacre, this time in the village of in al Heffah in Latakia Province as well as in the towns of Deir al-Zour, in Daraa, in Homs, in Hama, and in the suburbs of Damascus. UN military observers have been trying to make their way into al Heffah in particular and they've been blocked by regime forces and barred from the town which is yet another violation of the regime's commitment to cooperate with the UN supervision mission inside Syria.
[Sweeney:] Opposition activists say at least 93 people were killed across Syria today. Here you see the flashpoints of violence from Damascus in the south all the way north to Aleppo. Well, from the very start, some experts said the Syrian regime would survive this uprising if the biggest cities remained on the sidelines. So far, Aleppo and Damascus haven't really been drawn into the conflict, but as Ivan Watson reports we may now be witnessing a turning point.
[Ivan Watson, Cnn International Correspondent:] This is a Syrian rebel ambush, a roadside bomb hitting a convoy of buses carrying Syrian troops. The rebel's camera catches soldiers running for cover in the suburb of Duma, just a few miles from Damascus. The sound of fierce fighting echoing across Damascus at night has shattered the security bubble in the capital. Syria experts say the battle for Syria's two largest cities has begun.
[Peter Harling, International Crisis Group:] We've seen events pick up on the ground with more and more clashes occurring in areas of the country which the regime claims to control and in particular the largest city Aleppo, the country's economic capital if you will, and the administrative capital Damascus. In both places we've seen not just more armed clashes than ever in the past, but also a revival of the protest movement in its peaceful dimension.
[Watson:] A secretly filmed activist video shows the historic Hamadia Bazaar in the heart of Damascus shuttered, a strike staged by shopkeepers two weeks ago in protest against a massacre of civilians in the village of Houla allegedly by pro-government militia.
[Harling:] This is really a very strong signal suggesting that the historical alliance between the regime and the business establishment of the capital is at least partially broken.
[Watson:] The strike spread to neighborhoods in Aleppo prompting government troops to lash out and force merchants to reopen their shops.
[Harling:] What we see is the regime whose narrative boil down to us or chaos, but increasingly what we see is them and chaos. The regime has been incapable of imposing law and order.
[Watson:] More than a year of violence compounded by economic sanctions is taking its toll on ordinary Syrians. Prices of basic commodities and fuel have skyrocketed. Activist-journalists sent us this video of a woman complaining that she can only afford to feed her children rotting onions and stale bread warmed over a wood fire, because she can't afford to buy cooking fuel. The Syrian regime is still far from defeated. It still have fervent supporters and vastly better weapons than the rebels. But with its soldiers now using the main sports stadium in Damascus as a staging ground, the image of a government in control has started to crack. Ivan Watson, CNN, Istanbul.
[Sweeney:] Well, CNN talked to a Syrian activist in Idlib today who said, quote, "we cannot believe that the world is just watching us being killed. We want military intervention." You may remember the world did intervene in Libya's uprising, a move that helped rebels there win the war. But as many experts have pointed out, Syria is no Libya. The first major difference is Syria's military capability. Unlike Libya, Syria has a formidable military machine. The country has a significant air presence. This is a look at its military air bases around the country in the white circles. The blue squares represent the civilian airports. Many of those bases are guarded by one of the most significant ballistic missile forces in the region. Nearly 1,000 helicopters, war planes, and jets also make up its air force. Libya had less than 400 aircraft only half of them operational. Another major difference is the makeup of the rebel force. In Libya, opposition forces had a strong hold in the eastern city of Benghazi. In the case of Syria, rebel forces often are spread throughout the country. And finally, though Syria's important foreign ties: Tartus is home to a Russian naval base, Moscow's only presence in the Mediterranean. So Syria presents much different challenges than Libya did. But some still say military intervention is the right course of action. Tonight, we'll debate both sides of the argument with two top former military figures. George Joulwan is a former NATO supreme allied commander and retired U.S. major general. James "Spider" Marks was commanding general of the U.S. army intelligence center. Thank you both for joining us. First of all, if I can turn to you General Joulwan, you are I gather against military intervention. Why? GEN. GEORGE JOULWAN, FRM. NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER And let me ask you about the political will behind this. There doesn't seem to be the same international, or indeed in the United States, domestic consumption for intervention as there was in Libya.
[Joulwan:] Well, not also in Libya, but also Bosnia. And I had a hand in running the Bosnian operation. And there was very little support then. And I worked for a year-and-a-half to answer all those questions of clarity through prudent rules of engagement. Are we going to take out all those very sophisticated air defenses that you mentioned? All of that needs to be raised before you make a military decision to intervene, particularly by the United States.
[Sweeney:] Major General Spider Marks, you're in favor of military intervention. The questions and the points raised by Major General Joulwan, have they been addressed in your mind? Are these semantical? MAJ. GEN. JAMES MARKS
[Cnn Contributor:] No they're not semantical. General Joulwan is absolutely spot on. Where I differ is that there has to be some immediate cessation to the killing that's taking place in Syria. And clearly diplomacy has not been able to do that. And there are ways that that can take place where it's not unilateral. And I would never suggest that the United States do this in a unilateral way. There has to be an international body that agrees to the insertion of military force.
[Sweeney:] And where could you see that kind of agreement coming from?
[Marks:] Where can I see it coming from? It needs to be able to take place both from European partners and the regional stakeholders in [inaudible]. Clearly Jordan has a stake in this. A burgeoning and growing Iraq has a stake in this. And clearly what you see on the sidelines is an Israeli that is very much in tune to what the dynamics are inside the country. And let's be frank, the Syrian military does not have a very strong track record in terms of effectiveness on the ground for the use of its military forces. Clearly it's being effective right now against civilian targets. But my point is is there needs to be an international body that would be lead by the United States, not necessarily the United States unilaterally and not necessarily the United States with the exclusive application of force on the ground.
[Sweeney:] Why would it have to be lead by the United States?
[Marks:] There isn't any other body that's going to be able to bring this together and again let's look at the dynamic of the presence of Russia and the alliance that takes place that's in place right now between Damascus and Moscow. It's very important the United States not allow Russia to increase its presence and the hand that it can wield in this part of the in this part of the world as we go forward. Clearly al Qaeda is another wild card in this. And we're beginning to see the insipid beginning of the insertion of al Qaeda trying to create a solution. I think it's important that we have a presence on the ground so we can at least begin to shape what that end state might be, as General Joulwan has talked about.
[Sweeney:] General Joulwan do you see that there might be a tipping point for military intervention?
[Joulwan:] Not right now. I think we've got a lot of other questions to answer here. You know, I brought Russia into the Bosnian operation. And we were able to get cooperation with the Russians to try to have an influence in settling that very difficult conflict that was going on. I think there's a role here for diplomacy, there's a role here for some arm twisting on our part to get people involved. The Arab League needs to get involved. But I really think talking about unilateral military action or even military action without an understanding, we cannot go through another 10 year war in an Arab country. We just can't do it.
[Sweeney:] But you're making a comparison there with Iraq. And some say that that comparison is more accurate than to compare Syria with Libya. But as time passes, does the prospect for successful military intervention, should it be deemed necessary and agreements be reached, approve or decrease?
[Joulwan:] You know, I think there's we have a we don't like to see the killing that's going on now as Americans, also within Europe and NATO. NATO intervened not just the United States in Bosnia. But the United States was very unwilling to do so for a long time. So I really think that it's going to take some sort of leadership here and diplomacy, economic, as well as military options here to be able to try to stop the killing. And Russia can be very helpful with us in that area.
[Sweeney:] If not helpful, perhaps necessary as we look here at shelling, the latest shelling of the city of Homs in Syria. Let me ask you about military intervention. Does it need to be on the scale of the kind of intervention we saw in Libya, what about the prospect of safe havens for people trying to flee cities like Homs?
[Joulwan:] Well, again, let me get back to the issue of if you're going to put an air cover of it as we did in Libya, then you need to have what I call robust rules of engagement. And that's part of the clarity in terms of the mission. Do you have the rules of engagement to take out their air defenses? And you know then Russia is involved in some of that. All that needs to be decided. And that to me is a very important aspect of whatever we do in Syria.
[Sweeney:] I mean, Major General Spider Marks, could you even for a second begin to see that any kind of military intervention, either on the borders of Syria or within or above Syria itself, could come about some kind of you know, without some kind of overall agreement rather than unilateral action by some countries?
[Marks:] I think the only thing that you would see is the possibility of Turkey setting up some safe havens or buffer zones as sanctuaries to encourage families that are leaving Syria to have a place to go where at least there is a hope of some degree of protection, certainly along the border with Jordan and with Iraq again you could see that. We haven't seen that in great numbers right now, but that again would have to take place unilaterally by those nations absent an international body that's trying to set that up. General Joulwan has established very clearly that diplomacy must proceed any use of military force. That's an absolute necessary step. I am suggesting, however, that military force needs to be on the table as a topic moving forward.
[Sweeney:] And General Joulwan, presumably that's what's already been taking place over the last year and more diplomatic action.
[Joulwan:] Diplomatic action. But you should also know that there are nations arming the rebels. We should establish that. There are nations supplying arms to the rebels in Syria. And that is being done by several nations unilaterally. That will go on as it did in Libya. And I think in many respects this sort of revolution has to come from within. And your earlier report that the rebels were having some degree of success. I think all of that coupled with diplomatic, economic, and pressure can bring about the results without having a large military intervention at this time.
[Sweeney:] Thank you. General Spider Marks, the final word to you if I may. Do you believe that there are within various governments around the world military planners at work right now?
[Marks:] I think every nation that has a focus, or at least an interest in what the outcome is like in Syria, clearly has military plans. I mean, that's what militaries do, they plan for those inevitablilities and those, frankly, very uncertain times. So clearly plans are in place and they are growing in terms of branches and the sequels that are necessary to anticipate what the possible outcomes might be.
[Sweeney:] We leave it there. Thank you very much indeed. Major General Spider Marks, General Joulwan, both of you in Washington, D.C. Thanks for joining us.
[Joulwan:] Thank you.
[Marks:] Thank you.
[Sweeney:] And still to come tonight, is Hosni Mubarak's health hanging in the balance. Reports that Egypt's imprisoned former president has slipped into a coma. Running out of steam, markets cheer Spain's bank bailout, but quickly fizzle out, the unresolved issues is rattling investors coming up. And in Euro 2012, a result for France and England, but [inaudible] both sides. We'll have all the latest sports news and much more when Connect the World continues.