(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - In this context, US dailies shed light on the possibility that the "Israeli" strike against Syria might pave the way for US intervention in the country.
According to the New York Times: "The apparent ease with which "Israel" struck missile sites and, by Syrian accounts, a major military research center near Damascus in recent days has stoked debate in Washington about whether American-led airstrikes are the logical next step."
"That option was already being debated in secret by the United States, Britain and France in the days leading to the "Israeli" strikes," the daily quoted American and foreign officials involved in the discussions as saying.
For its part, the Washington Post daily mentioned that "Israel's" reported airstrikes in Syria - and the threat of a retaliatory strike by the Syrian government - are likely to accelerate the decision-making of the Obama administration, which was already moving toward a sharp escalation of US involvement in the two-year-old crisis.
"Senior officials said the deployment of US troops to Syria remains unlikely, but they have indicated that a decision will come within weeks on options ranging from the supply of weapons, to the Syrian rebels, to the use of US aircraft and missiles, to ground President Bashar al-Assad's air power by destroying planes, runways and missile sites inside Syria," it added.
However, Rep. CA Dutch Ruppersberger (Md.), the senior US Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, urged that action should be taken only with other partners. "We can't be the sheriff to the whole world," he said. "We have our own issues right now - Iraq, Afghanistan, we have sequestration, those type of issues. So when we make the move to get in, we have to do it with a coalition."
"The apparent "Israeli" strikes appeared to bolster the case of those who have long favored direct US support for the rebels," the daily added.
For his part, the famous writer Robert Fisk wrote in The Independent:
"Let's see if the US and the EU condemn "Israel's" air attacks. I doubt it. Which would mean, if we are silent, that we approve of them. Silence, to quote Sir Thomas More, gives consent."
He further concluded that "after the "Israeli" strike, we [US] are involved."
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