White House rules out 'regime change' among options for Syria

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

White House rules out 'regime change' among options for Syria

WASHINGTON | Tue Aug 27, 2013 2:06pm EDT

(Reuters) - The White House ruled out any military effort to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power on Tuesday as President Barack Obama ponders options in response to last week's chemical weapons attack in Syria.

"The options that we are considering are not about regime change," said White House spokesman Jay Carney. "They are about responding to a clear violation of an international standard that prohibits the use of chemical weapons."

Obama is considering cruise missile strikes against Syrian targets in response to the August 21 chemical weapons attack that U.S. officials are increasingly confident was launched by the Syrian government.

Carney said the United States expects to release in coming days a public version of a formal report by the U.S. intelligence community on the use of chemical weapons. The report is expected to conclude the Syrian government was responsible for the attack.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/27/us-syria-crisis-obama-intelligence-idUSBRE97Q0S820130827

[MADem]

1. They NEVER ruled it in.

Only here, on DU, do people believe otherwise--because they make assumptions not in evidence.

USA favors a Yemen Scenario for Syria, and other actors in the region agree.

[jakeXT]

2. "We need to tilt the balance a little bit more"

At the same time, I hope it's the kind of action that doesn't move us away from the policy we have right now where we want to see the Syrian opposition group taking the lead on the ground. So I hope we'll move our training up. I know we're doing it covertly now. I think we need to move to more industrial strength training on the ground. We need to tilt the balance a little bit more as it relates to the opposition group on the ground. And I don't want our actions that--that are in response to this chemical warfare to alter that.

But I do think we had to respond--

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/fox-news-sunday-chris-wallace/2013/08/25/sen-corker-rep-engel-debate-us-response-syria-egypt-gov-fallin-australian-athletes-murder#p//v/2628286815001