SyriaKerry leaves no doubt: U.S. will attack Syria within days, no UN approval sought

In a speech laying out the case for a military strike against the Assad regime for using chemical weapons against Sunni civilians on 21 April, Secretary of State John Kerry left no doubt that the Obama administration, within days at most, will launch a series of attacks against the offending Syrian regime.

The chemical attack killed 1,429 people, of which 426 were children.

“Read for yourselves the evidence from thousands of sources,” Kerry said in aggressively laying out the administration’s case for strikes on Syria. “This is the indiscriminate, inconceivable horror of chemical weapons. This is what Assad did to his own people.”

Kerry said the time for questions about what happened in Syria had passed.

“The question is whether we — we collectively — what are we and the world going to do about it?” Kerry said. He said that taking action in the face of the use of chemical weapons “matters deeply to the credibility and the future interests of the United States.”

Kerry acknowledged that the public in the United States was weary of war, saying that he, too, was tired after the years of military conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. He said, though, that this should not be used as an excuse not to act.

“Fatigue does not absolve us of our responsibility,” he declared. “Just longing for peace does not necessarily bring it about.”

Kerry also clarified that the United States will not bring the issue to the UN, where a guaranteed Russian veto in the Security Council would block any action against Syria.

The most important theme in the speech was that punishing the Assad regime for using chemical weapons – and not for the first time: there is evidence that the Syrian military used chemical weapons in small-scale chemical attacks against Sunni civilians at least six times since January, with some military analysts saying the number of chemical attacks by the regime is close to fifteen since January – was essential for protection U.S. national security interests.

The administration also circulated a 4-page report put together by the U.S. and U.K. intelligence communities, which highlights the following:

• 1,429 people were killed in the 21 August chemical weapons attack in Syria, and the U.S. intelligence community “assess with high confidence that the Syrian government carried out the chemical weapons attack against opposition elements in the Damascus suburbs.”
• Three days before the 21 August attack, U.S. intelligence detected signs of activities by the Syrian authorities “associated with preparations for a chemical weapons attack,” the assessment said. Syrian chemical weapons personnel were operating in the suburb of Adra from 18 August until early on the morning of 21 August. On that date, it added, a “Syrian regime element prepared for a chemical weapons attack,” including the use of gas masks.
• Spy satellites detected rocket launchings from government-controlled territory ninety minutes before the first reports of a chemical weapons attack.
• More than 100 videos, posted to social networks by ordinary people in the areas attacked by the regime’s chemical weapons, “show large numbers of bodies exhibiting physical signs consistent with, but not unique to, nerve agent exposure.”
  Some videos show what appear to be fatalities “with no visible injuries” — imagery “consistent with death from chemical weapons, and inconsistent with death from small-arms, high-explosive munitions or blister agents,” said the report. The Syrian opposition “does not have the capability to fabricate all of the videos.”
• The intelligence agencies also said they intercepted the communications of a senior Syrian official who “confirmed that chemical weapons were used by the regime on Aug. 21 and was concerned with the U.N. inspectors obtaining evidence,” the assessment said. It added that on the afternoon of that day, Syrian chemical weapons personnel were directed to cease operations.
• The United States says it has “intelligence that leads us to assess that Syrian chemical weapons personnel … were preparing chemical weapons munitions prior to” what Washington believes was a chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburbs on 21 August. “In the three days prior to the attack, we collected streams of human, signals and geospatial intelligence that reveal regime activities that we assess were associated with preparations for a chemical weapons attack,” the U.S. government said in its assessment released Friday.

Kerry, citing support from the Arab League, Turkey, and France, said that “we are not alone in our will to do something about” last week’s chemical weapons attack in Syria that he blamed on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Kerry added that the United States “makes our own decisions on our own timelines, based on our own values and interests” in signaling a possible military response to last week’s chemical weapons attack in Syria.