Syria’s Chemical Weapons Pose A Decade-Long Problem For The World -- Cheryl Rofer and Aaron Stein, Special to The Globe and Mail
Last week U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel told reporters in Abu Dhabi that the American intelligence agencies had concluded “with some degree of varying confidence” that the Syrian regime had used chemical weapons on a “small scale.” The White House, in a letter to Congress, said that the intelligence community had “physiological samples” that indicated the use of sarin – a colorless and odorless nerve agent invented in Germany in 1938.
The Obama Administration is currently weighing its options, but has made clear that it will wait for more evidence of chemical weapons use before making a decision on military force. Senator John McCain, on the other hand, favors military action, arguing that United States should intervene even if the reports of chemical weapon use aren’t true because Bashar al-Assad will likely use them in the future.
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