Dempsey: Military Intervention in Syria Would Carry Great Risks

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - In a message to the senators on Monday, Dempsey said that "Once we take action, we should be prepared for what comes next. Deeper involvement is hard to avoid", SANA reported.Dempsey viewed the available options and their costs, including training the "opposition", carrying out limited air strikes, imposing no-fly zones or safe havens, saying that all these options could require wider intervention.Gen Dempsey said that establishing a "no-fly zone" over Syria would cost USD 1bln a month and would risk the loss of US aircraft, obliging military operations to recover crew. He added that its impact on the conflict would be limited by the fact that Syria relies primarily on surface missiles and artillery rather than aerial attack.He added that "the more limited option of setting up buffer zones within the country near the Turkish or Jordanian borders would still require thousands of US ground forces and cost more than $1bln a month".Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards being reported across the country.Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed, when some protest rallies turned into armed clashes.The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.In October 2011, calm was almost restored in the Arab state after President Assad started a reform initiative in the country, but Israel, the US and its Arab allies sought hard to bring the country into chaos through any possible means. Tel Aviv, Washington and some Arab capitals have been staging various plots to topple President Bashar al-Assad, who is well known in the world for his anti-Israeli stances./149