Originally posted by StabbyTheIcePic
a story on Syria having wmd's would surely make the nightly news.
No one in the US or UK administration would say that in public.
Like I said, everyone knows where the Iraqi WMDs are, its just that it would be political suicide to say it. Right now the public is not ready for a war against Syria. Which leaves three options.
1) Ignore the problem for now, see how Iraq/Afghanistan/the war on terror develops, and depending on that, raise the Syrian question in a year or two.
2) Covert operations against the WMD locations in Syria.
3) Have Israel do it.
1) Seems to be the option the US/UK are going with right now. Its ok really, they know where the WMDs are, they have the area under 24 hour surviellance. How for example do you think the Jordanian plot was stopped?
2) Is too risky, basically this is what the Syrians are expecting, hence the army presence in the area. Any operation in the area is bound to cause some casualties, and the media image of an "unprovoked" US attack on peaceful Syria is bound to cause several heads to explode among the pacifists and the arabs. Anyway, it wont really lead to any good PR even if successful "yeah, we destroyed the Iraqi WMDs in Syria" followed by a gigantic "yeah, right" by the collective pacifists in the western hemisphere.
3) Is possibly what is going on too. Might be the reason why the US/UK are letting the Israelis do their thing with the Palestinians right now. Israel could be saying "ok, we will take out the nuclear reactor in Iran, and the Syrian WMDs and take the blame for it, if you let us do our thing in Gaza and the West Bank first to enhance our security situation".