Pentagon Prepares to Seize Syria's Weapon Supply

8-26-2012 • Free Press Publications

In late August the Pentagon announced a contingency plan is in place for seizing Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal should President Obama order them to do so, and that the plan involves sending “small teams” of special operations forces into Syria. Jason Ditz of AntiWar.com writes, “The idea that this could be accomplished with only 'small teams' of ground troops is dramatically far afield of what officials were saying only last week, when they claimed that the plans involved a 50,000-60,000 strong occupation force just to secure weapons, and even more for 'peacekeeping'... Officials did not indicate what 'small teams' meant in terms of numbers, or try to explain the difference from last week’s figures. It could reflect two different schools of thought inside the administration, or could simply be a way to get 'some' troops on the ground by any means necessary and then later on use the larger estimates as an excuse to escalate.”