The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has agreed a draft resolution on Syria. Chances are the Senate will give a green signal to what is being called a punitive strike. Obama thinks that in case no attack is considered against Syria, it would reflect badly on the international community for its inability to follow the ‘red line’ that makes clamping down on Syria legitimate and necessary if gas has been used. Russia has made it explicitly clear that any military intervention in Syria is conditional to approval from the UN Security Council (UNSC) and not the US Congress. Bypassing the UNSC will be, according to Russia, an act of aggression ‘legitimized’ by the US Congress.
The allegation that Syria has used gas has not been proved so far by the UN, and still the US is determined to attack the country. What implications this attack would have on the region is perhaps not thought through. In what is being seen as a rush into the matter, since most of the allies of the US, NATO, the EU, Britain, Germany are against the attack, it might leave a battered and mutilated region in its trail. American and French citizens too have expressed dismay over the impending Syrian attack. The assault will reinforce political and sectarian divisions, already on display. So far Russia and Iran have been warning the US of dire consequences in case of any aggressive step against Syria. Though it is unthinkable that Russia or Iran would go for a head on collusion with the US, the chances of asymmetrical warfare against the US getting an impetus cannot be ruled out. Similarly Lebanon’s involvement, through Hezbollah, will have a two-way effect: stoking sectarian violence, and the rage blowing back on Lebanon. Israel’s intervention in case of Lebanon’s hardwired approach can make matters worse. So far Israel has kept its cards close to its chest, but the proximity of its presence to the new war theatre makes it a potential respondent to the effects of the war. Unless the US can prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, there is no justification for attacking Syria. Should the world become a victim of unnecessary wars because the US’s military-industrial complex’s appetite makes them inevitable? The Syrian attack will have no relevance, with or without Congress’s approval, other than a reflection of a systemic flaw in US military policy. *