US Strikes on Syria Loom Large

Despite still having no concrete evidence the Bashar al-Assad regime used chemical weapons and no clearly defined goals, the US appears on the cusp of striking Syria within days, if not hours.

Analysts are predicting a two-day strike that could begin as early as Thursday, and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has already announced the U.S. is “ready to go.”

The Virginian-Pilot reports on U.S. ships at the ready to launch cruise missiles into Syria:

Foreign Policy has mapped out where those missiles might strike.

But, as Marjorie Cohn and Jeanne Mirer explain,

While Secretary of State John Kerry has proclaimed with certainty that chemical weapons were used, and were used by Assad forces, the U.N.’s special envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, told reporters on Wednesday that evidence suggests “some form of substance” was used, though he did not confirm it was chemical weapons.

The U.N. is currently conducting a probe on allegations of chemical weapons being used in an Aug. 21 attack, an investigation the U.S. appears to have tried to derail. 

“[Inspectors] have already spent one day in one area where this substance, whatever it is, has been used,” Bahimi said. “They have come back with a lot of samples; they talked also to doctors and witnesses. They are in another area just now, as we speak, and we are waiting to see what they are going to tell us.”