Syria Strikes Recede as Cameron Struggles for Lawmaker Assent

[Purveyor]

By James G. Neuger and John Walcott - Aug 29, 2013

The prospect of an imminent attack on Syria faded as U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, the U.S.’s top ally, struggled to win parliamentary backing for military strikes that critics said echoed the push to war in Iraq.

Britain released an assessment showing it “highly likely” the Syrian government was behind the mass killing of civilians with chemical weapons on Aug. 21 near Damascus. Still, Cameron bowed to opposition demands to await a judgment by on-site United Nations inspectors. Likewise, the Obama administration is laboring to marshal conclusive evidence backing its assertions that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was directly responsible for the attack, said three intelligence officials familiar with the situation.

Memories of the invasion of Iraq, based on false intelligence of an Iraqi stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, are slowing efforts by the U.S. and the U.K. to rally support for surgical strikes to halt the use of chemical arms in Syria’s two-year-old civil war, which the UN estimates has claimed more than 100,000 lives.

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Hedged Intelligence

Britain’s intelligence assessment was hedged. It found “no plausible alternative scenarios to regime responsibility” for last week’s chemical attack. What remains unclear, the assessment said, is Assad’s “precise motivation for carrying out an attack of this scale at this time.”

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2013-08-29/syria-strikes-recede-as-cameron-struggles-for-lawmaker-assent.html

[JRLeft]

1. Good for the UK, the US has provided no evidence to the inspectors of a chemical attack.

[dipsydoodle]

2. That's because over here

some of our elected representatives have got at least half a brain.

[JRLeft]

3. At least the majority of the country agree with you and I.