The United States is considering bolder intervention in Syria to end the bloody civil war, according to a report in the New York Times. NATO is likely to decide next week on whether to install surface-to-air missiles in Turkey to protect the nation from Syrian missiles. The Times details other potential options:
Other, more distant options include directly providing arms to opposition fighters rather than only continuing to use other countries, especially Qatar, to do so. A riskier course would be to insert C.I.A. officers or allied intelligence services on the ground in Syria, to work more closely with opposition fighters in areas that they now largely control.
Administration officials discussed all of these steps before the presidential election. But the combination of President Obama’s re-election, which has made the White House more willing to take risks, and a series of recent tactical successes by rebel forces, one senior administration official said, “has given this debate a new urgency, and a new focus.”
