Kerry makes case for limited military action in Syria

US might do anything but it would be carefully tailored and would not resemble the previous US invasions, says Kerry.

WASHINGTON DC: US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday made a broad case for limited US military action against Syria for its suspected use of chemical weapons, saying it could not go unpunished for such a “crime against humanity.”

Kerry also stressed that anything the United States might do would be carefully tailored and would not in any way resemble the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, nor its intervention to help topple former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

“It will not involve any boots on the ground. It will not be open-ended. And it will not assume responsibility for a civil war that is already well underway,” Kerry said of any action US President Barack Obama might pursue.

“Any action that he might decide to take will be (a) limited and tailored response to ensure that a despot’s brutal and flagrant use of chemical weapons is held accountable,” he added in a brief and forceful televised speech at the US State Department. He said other nations that might use weapons of mass destruction were watching to see if Syria escaped with impunity.

Kerry also presented a US government report on its intelligence findings about last week’s chemical attacks in a Damascus district of which UN investigators were still collecting evidence. Kerry claimed that over 1,429 people had been killed including at least 426 children. Kerry added that they had human, signal and geospatial intelligence on movement linked to chemical weapons in the three days leading up to the strike on August 21.