By Anna Mulrine,\u00a0The Christian Science Monitor The Pentagon<\/a>‘s decision to send a contingent of US troops to\u00a0Jordan<\/a>, announced by\u00a0Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel<\/a>\u00a0during a congressional hearing this week, raises the question of whether the\u00a0Obama administration<\/a>\u00a0has now moved one step closer to a military intervention in\u00a0Syria<\/a>.<\/p>\n These troops, a unit from\u00a0Fort Bliss<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Texas<\/a>, will bring the number of US forces in Jordan to more than 200. The plan is for the US troops to help train their Jordanian counterparts in the finer points of defending their border with Syria.<\/p>\n But Hagel issued clear warnings against the dangers of an\u00a0American military<\/a>\u00a0intervention in the Syrian civil war, which has so far claimed 75,000 lives.<\/p>\n These US forces, he said, are not meant to be a stepping stone to US troops on the ground fighting alongside rebel contingents struggling to overthrow the government of\u00a0Syrian President Bashar al-Assad<\/a>.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because \u201ca military intervention could have the unintended consequences of bringing theUnited States<\/a>\u00a0into a broader regional conflict, or proxy war,\u201d Hagel told members of the\u00a0Senate Armed Services Committee<\/a>. \u201cWe have an obligation and responsibility to think through the consequences of direct \u2013 any direct \u2013 US military action in Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n A US military intervention could \u201chinder humanitarian relief options,\u201d he explained. It could also \u201cembroil the United States in a significant, lengthy, and uncertain military commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n Not all lawmakers were impressed by this argument.\u00a0Sen. John McCain (R)<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Arizona<\/a>\u00a0called the notion that a US military operation against Mr. Assad could hinder humanitarian actions \u201calmost laughable.\u201d<\/p>\n In refugee camps, people \u201care angry and bitter because we haven\u2019t helped them. And we are breeding a generation of people who will \u2013 as was articulated to me by a teacher in one of the refugee camps \u2013 these children will take revenge on the people who refused to help them.\u201d<\/p>\n Chairman of the\u00a0Joint Chiefs of Staff<\/a>\u00a0Gen. Martin Dempsey<\/a>, the nation\u2019s top military officer, echoed Hagel\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n The responsibility of his job, he said, \u201chas been and will always will be to provide the secretary of Defense and the president of the United States with options. Some of these options involve the use of military force.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe decision to use force, especially lethal force, is not one that any of us takes lightly. In weighing options, we have a responsibility to align the use of force to the intended outcome,\u201d he said. \u201cWe also have a responsibility to articulate risk.\u201d<\/p>\n For now, General Dempsey told lawmakers that he does \u201cnot see that the introduction of military force would produce the outcomes that we seek.\u201d<\/p>\n The new US troops flowing into the region primarily will be responsible for helping Jordanian forces prepare for a response to a chemical weapons attack, and for preventing spillover of violence across Jordan\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n These troops bring with them training and equipment to detect and stop chemical weapons, and the ability to help Jordanian forces identify and secure the weapons.<\/p>\n Sending US troops into Syria would not guarantee that the US could secure chemical weapons caches. \u201cSo if we had confidence that [the anti-Assad rebel groups] could secure it, then they could secure it. If we have to go in there, it would be non-permissive,\u201d said Dempsey. (\u201cNon-permissive\u201d means violent in US military parlance.)<\/p>\n And even then, senior US military officials say they are not confident that the US troops could secure the chemical weapons, \u201csimply because,\u201d Dempsey explained, Assad\u2019s forces have \u201cbeen moving it, and the number of sites is quite numerous.\u201d<\/p>\n As a result, he cautioned, \u201cbefore we take action, we have to be prepared for what comes next.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Pentagon said this week it would send a small number of troops to Jordan to help forces there deal with Syria’s chemical weapons threat and to prevent the civil war from spilling over. By Anna Mulrine,\u00a0The Christian Science Monitor click here for original article The Pentagon‘s decision to send a contingent of US troops […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1381,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/0418-Hagel-Jordan-troops.jpg_full_380.jpg?fit=380%2C253&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1380"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1382,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380\/revisions\/1382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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