A littel rant
Just to be clear, I think we are making the right move to take action in this case. The question in my mind is, "what action will yield the desired result?"
That is a complex and nuanced question. But unlike others on this council I will not walk away from it just because it is complex. I have seen too many people here try to pass off the observation that a problem is complex as some form of intellectualism - with their next statement being that if it is too complex we should not get involved. Sorry, but that is poor logic and even poorer scholarship. There is nothing profound about standing on the sidelines.
If we want 1) to deter Assad from using these weapons again, and 2) deter other like-minded leaders from using the same tact - what is the response that will yield that result. What can we take away that Assad cares that much about. What can we threaten that other leaders will think twice about before they chose to use chemical weapons.
My response is - we need to know what Assad cares about first - then we act.
An appropriate response against Assad will yield the desired deterrence against others.
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