Syria 's civil war is not America 's problem . Syria is surrounded by Turkey , Israel , Egypt , Jordan , and other Arab nations with large standing armies and advanced military equipment . Their cowardice in acting to stop a war on their doorstep should give us pause for thought . Why will they not act , but we must ? Why is American gullibility for war so strong that countries such as Saudi Arabia , Turkey , and Israel can dispense of their moral duties to the American taxpayer ? Make no mistake about it : al Assad is a war criminal , having had his own civilians and soldiers slaughtered in a war to keep his family in power . The sectarian , ethnic , and religious dimensions of the war have kept the Obama administration ( rightly in my view ) away from direct military involvement in the conflict . But what has changed now ? The use of chemical weapons to kill people jolts us into probable action , but millions displaced , wounded and 100,000 dead did not . Why ? Because the banality of the policy shift rests on the assumptions that American cruise missiles can prevent further use of chemical weapons , provide a face-saving measure for President Barack Obama who can argue that he acted after his `` red line '' had been crossed in Syria , and neuter critics of Obama 's Syria policy . There is no absolute certainty as to whether al Assad used chemical weapons , or rebel factions did . Al Assad has no credible motivation to use these weapons at this stage , and in this phase of the conflict . He is not losing . If , as the Russians claim , it was al Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusrah group or Free Syrian Army elements that used weapons to bait America into the conflict , then U.S. firepower would be futile in establishing how a ragtag army and terrorists obtained chemical weapons . No amount of surgical strikes on government facilities will prevent non-state actors from further use of these weapons . What justifies intervening if Syria uses chemical weapons ? But if we believe that al Assad used these weapons , and launch punitive attacks on Syria , what exactly are we targeting ? The secretive and globally isolated nature of the Assad regime and therefore his chemical stockpiles means that we do not know where these are located . We intervened in Libya with greater confidence because Gadhafi 's chemical weapons were mostly eliminated by an international inspection arrangement prior to the Arab uprisings . By bombing Syria now we increase the risk of al Assad using chemical weapons on populations and cities that are not under government control , or to quell new rebellions . Damaging his air force and known military installation would force him to consider his more extreme options for regime survival . Syria is now a fight to the death for both sides . U.S.-led military strikes in Syria will not change the tide of the war . That is not the mission , nor is it achievable by aerial blitzing . The Syrian opposition is not a government in waiting . It is too fragmented ideologically , overwrought by al Qaeda affiliates , deeply anti-American , and dominated by suburban fighters with little control of major cities , mercenaries who are not committed to peaceful coexistence with Syria 's religious Christians , nor its Jewish neighbor . Syria after al Assad will be worse . A new civil war will break out between opposition factions . By bombing Syria today , we bear the burden of the instability we leave in our wake . President Obama imprudently mentioned a `` red line '' in Syria and is now hostage to fortune . The president has changed his policy stance on using illegal wire taps , closing Guantanamo Bay , gay marriage , and more . Opinion : 5 reasons the U.S. must intervene in Syria . The heat of the moment and push from the chattering classes to `` do something '' without knowing what will consume Obama into another Middle East war . He beat Hillary Clinton as an anti-Iraq war candidate . By intervening , Syria may well prove to be Obama 's war , bequeathed to a new president in 2016 . Civilian casualties are inevitable : The images on our screens will not be Syrians using chemical weapons to kill each other , but American bombs creating carnage and killings in yet another Muslim country .
Sectarian , ethnic , and religious dimensions have kept the U.S. away from direct involvement , writes Ed Husain . He asks : If punitive attacks on Syria are launched , what exactly are we targeting ? Score: 7