Pentagon: We'll be ready if needed for Syria

United States Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, center, gestures while speaking during a round table of NATO Defense Ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels on April 18, 2012. / AP Photo/Virginia Mayo

(AP) WASHINGTON - The U.S. military is working on additional ways to try to halt the unending violence in Syria, but diplomacy remains the foremost option, Pentagon leaders told Congress on Thursday.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, outlined the steps the United States is taking to pressure the regime of President Bashar Assad, including direct non-lethal support to the opposition such as communications equipment and emergency humanitarian assistance of $25 million. But the two made clear that unilateral military action is far from a solution.

"There is no silver bullet," Panetta told the House Armed Services Committee. "At the same time, the situation is of grave consequence to the Syrian people."

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In a bipartisan response, both the chairman of the committee and the top Democrat cautioned against the Obama administration opting for military force to stop 13 months of bloodshed and violence that has devastated cities such as Homs, left thousands dead and tens of thousands displaced.

"I am not recommending U.S. military intervention, particularly in light of our grave budget situation, unless the national security threat was clear and present," said Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., the committee's chairman. "Nevertheless, these reflections lead me to wonder what the United States can do to stem the violence and hasten President Assad from power."

Rep. Adam Smith of Washington State, the panel's ranking Democrat, said the United States should support the Syrian people "but we must be extremely cautious as we discuss the potential for the use of military force."

Their comments highlighted the split in Congress on military action. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and President Barack Obama's 2008 presidential rival, has been outspoken in calling for military airstrikes against Syria. He has complained that Obama has taken too soft a stand against Assad and his brutal crackdown on his own people.

Panetta and Dempsey were updating the committee on security in Syria. Dempsey said in that so far, the military's role has been in sharing information with regional partners. But Dempsey also said the military will be ready if other options are needed.

With rebel forces poorly armed and disorganized, efforts to pay them by Arab Gulf states failing, and sectarian divisions looming in Syria, the U.S. and its allies seem prepared to leave Assad where he is. Even if he could be ousted, the near future in Syria could involve civil war among ethnic groups now under Assad's boot, or a slow and bloody war with rebels or proxy fighters armed from the outside.

The U.S. has edged toward supplying the rebels with communications gear and other nonlethal aid but has ruled out either a military assault or a supply of heavy weaponry for rebel forces.

"We are at a crucial turning point," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday.

Either a United Nations-brokered cease-fire takes hold "or we see Assad squandering his last chance before additional measures have to be considered," Clinton said.

But even as she implies tougher international intervention, Clinton is not expected to announce a shift in the U.S. stance during a diplomatic huddle on Syria in Paris on Thursday.

[Adress9871234]

Nice.

[ssporleder]

Sure.

We seem to always have our nose in someone else's business and for all the billions spent and all of the lives lost of our troops, what do WE get in return?

Why not flush the money down the toilet since we NEVER get paid back for taking care of the rest of the world while the U.S. flounders?

[alinrodneyvil]

I get so sick and tired of the Media reporting on what senile old McCain says. He spent the whole Vietnam war in a prison cell for God's sake. He never commanded a single soldier in his life but now he wants us to jump into every uprising and civil war that breaks out anywhere. Stuff that is none of our business. And the closest that Chicken Hawke Lindsay Graham has come to war is a Reservist Lawyer in the JAG Corps who's job as a career politician exempts his butt from being called up for Duty. Both of these clowns should shut their faces.

[marinasboat]

How about we start minding our own business and take care of the Americans that need help. Money could be used several other thousand ways than another useless war.

[verrz]

The conflict would be a possible President Romney's pretext for launching the Mid East war he believes to be inevitable. He inadvertantly tipped his hand with his Russia-is-America's-greatest-enemy remark. Far from a reversion to the cold war era, it reveals a mind that is actively war gaming for future conflict as of course Russia backs pro-Iran Syria. In addition, any U.S./Israeli action against Iran's nuke program is sure to set off the Syrian tinder box and lead to a much broader Mid-East war, again with Russia as America's new number one military threat.
The solution here is to brocker a cease fire and get the rebles negotiating with Assad for real democratic reforms. This disturbing new lust to stoke the flames of war have obscured the most obvious and rational solution. The tremptation for Syrian involvent is also fd by the desire to strke Iran obliqely. I suspect that the Obam team is fully aware of the potential for major war here and is striving with all it's might to prevent this: no easy task, with a war maddened faction in Congress to deal with. God be with you, Mr. President.

[verrz]

Opps. Accidentally posted before I could iron out the spelling flubs!

[AOCGUY]

It is the DoD's responsibility to ensure that it can carry out any mission given to it by the POTUS, so the SecDef and the CJCS tellng Congress that they are prepared for possible action in Syria is not a surprise.

That said I am amazed at the creativity some have in finding new ways to waste US tax dollars and get American service men and women killed.

[expatriate2]

Aren't you always ready for a war? But never ready to permit nations to resolve their own problems without your intrusion. It is never considered that nations have the right to manage their own affairs even if they lead to war. The 100 Year War actually lasted 113 years but it was resolved without anyone entering as enforcement bullies.