U.S. Absurdly Claims "Very Little Doubt" About Syrian Poison Gas Use; It's a Run Up to Iraq Invasion Redux

The whole thing stinks to high heaven. On Sunday a nameless "senior Obama administration official said . . . there was 'very little doubt' that President Bashar al-Assad’s military forces had used chemical weapons against civilians last week and that a Syrian promise to allow United Nations inspectors access to the site was 'too late to be credible.' " This from a story by Scott Shane and Ben Hubbard that appeared yesterday on the New York Times web site.

Ask yourself the question, "Why is giving inspectors approval on Sunday after an early Wednesday morning gas attack too late to be credible?" The site of the chemical attack is behind rebel lines. The Syrian government's wariness to grant immediate access to the inspection team probably had to do with not being able to guarantee their safety. Imagine a situation where United Nations personnel are taken hostage by Al Qaeda jihadis.

Reports this morning that the U.N. convoy of inspectors came under sniper fire soon after they left the government checkpoint and headed into rebel territory highlights this danger and strongly suggests that it is the opposition that above all doesn't want an inspection, possibly because the evidence gathered will overwhelming reveal that the chemical stocks used to massacre the 300-plus civilians have a foreign signature. Why aren't France, Britain and the United States threatening strikes against opposition territory?

No, it's all like a bad flashback to the run up to the shock and awe in the Iraq war a decade ago. No matter how much access the Iraqis granted Hans Blix, and no matter the lack of any of weapons of mass destruction unearthed, none of it mattered. The United States fabricated its own proof using code-named anonymous sources and official pronouncements that were dutifully featured in the prestige press. One would hope that we had learned our lesson after the bloody -- and still bloody -- war in Iraq. But it doesn't appear that we have.

The fact that Israel is out front on this, denying any possibility other than a Syrian government origin of the chemical weapons attack and calling for inclusion of Iran in any planned military action, has to raise any news consumer's suspicion that there is something more here than fits the standard Western narrative:

Israel sharpened its message on Sunday, suggesting that the use of such weapons in the region should not go without a response. 

“This situation must not be allowed to continue,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, referring to the Syrian civilians “who were so brutally attacked by weapons of mass destruction.” 

“The most dangerous regimes in the world must not be allowed to possess the most dangerous weapons in the world,” he said. 

Some Israelis have argued that international intervention in Syria would distract the world from the crucial effort to prevent a nuclear Iran. But there is a growing sense among Israelis that Syria is now a test of how the world might respond to Iran as it approaches the ability to make a nuclear weapon. 

“Assad’s regime has become a full Iranian client, and Syria has become Iran’s testing ground,” Mr. Netanyahu added.

What we've got here is a grand barbecue. It's Middle East score settling and a carving up of Sykes-Picot, not just a roll back of the three-year-old Arab Spring. The Saudis are flying high. The Egyptian generals have smashed political Islam. Now it's time to finally get rid of Baathism. Seeing the Saudis gorging themselves at the table, the Israelis are trying to elbow their way in and take out Iran during the feeding frenzy.

The danger here in all of this is too immense to gauge. One thing is for sure. If Obama presides over a propaganda campaign reminiscent of the one used to frighten people into supporting an invasion of Iraq -- or even like the one used to justify bombing Yugoslavia in 1999 -- that'll be it for his ability to mobilize his diminishing base of supporters, for his legacy, for the immediate future of the Democratic Party. The promise of the Obama presidency -- if not the actual record -- has always been that he'll do whatever he can to keep American citizens from fighting foreign wars. We attack Syria, this one great promise disappears.