US military strike with cruise missiles unlikely to deter Syrian regime, warn analysts

The Pentagon's likely means of attacking Syria will not deter the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons, retired military officers and analysts have said.

They said that the attack could however drag the United States more deeply into Syria's civil war.

Obama administration officials have said the attack's goal would be to punish the Syrian regime for the chemical weapons attack on civilians on August 21, which killed thousands of civilians, including a number of children, not to topple President Bashar al-Assad.

According to the Washington Times, five Navy destroyers armed with about 200 Tomahawk cruise missiles are deployed in the eastern Mediterranean Sea in anticipation of a limited attack on Syrian military sites.

Pentagon officials have said that chemical weapons stockpiles would not be targeted to avoid the inadvertent release of poisonous gas.

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, who planned the air attack phase of 1991's Desert Storm operation against Iraq, noted the limited sites in Syria that could be targeted effectively by cruise missiles, the report said.

He said Assad and his military have so many different means of delivering these weapons, that a strike with a bunch of cruise missiles, even if it's in the hundreds, is not going to make a significant impact.

Syria is believed to possess several hundred short-and intermediate-range ballistic missiles that can carry chemical warheads, according to a recent report by the Congressional Research Service.

A limited attack would not eliminate the regime's ability to use chemical weapons and probably would not deter its use of such weapons.

The Obama administration has said it does not want to get involved in a protracted conflict with U.S. boots on the ground, analysts said.