US comes up with case for World War

Secretary of State John Kerry said the US has “high confidence” that the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was behind a chemical weapons attack last week and explained why the US government must respond.
Kerry said the findings of the American intelligence are “as clear as they are compelling,” as he offered evidence against the Assad regime he said proves the Syrian government is to blame for the death of at least 1,429 people, including 426 children, in the chemical assault.
Also Friday, the government issued a detailed intelligence assessment outlining evidence based on intercepts, satellites, and human spying to make its case that the Assad regime was responsible for the chemical attack last Wednesday.
“We assess with high confidence that the Syrian government carried out the chemical weapons attack against opposition elements in the Damascus suburbs on Aug. 21,” said the government assessment, which the White House released as Secretary of State John Kerry made the public case for the US responsibility to respond. None of the actual evidence was released.
But Kerry said the US knows rockets carrying the chemicals came from regime-controlled areas, knows the Assad regime was preparing for a chemical-weapons assault just before the attack and has evidence that a senior regime official confirmed that the government used chemical weapons.
“The primary question is really no longer what we know—the question is what are we, we collectively, what are we in the world to do about it?” Kerry said. He said the Syrian regime crossed a line and broke international norms and represents a “crime against humanity.” He said Syria’s actions represent a test of whether America will still defend universal values and that America’s credibility is on the line.”It matters because a lot of other countries, whose policies challenge these international norms are watching. They are watching. They want to see if the United States and our friends mean what we say.
“It’s directly related to our credibility and whether countries still believe the United States when they say something,” Mr. Kerry said.
Pointing to the possibility of military action in coming days, Kerry said the US will continue talking to allies and Congress, but will make its own decisions on its own timelines. Any military action, he said, will be limited and won’t include putting American troops on the ground in Syria. He said it won’t be open ended or represent anything like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
FRANCE READY: Meanwhile, France said on Friday it still backed action to punish Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government for an apparent poison gas attack on civilians, despite a British parliamentary vote against it. An aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, a close Assad ally, seized on the British no vote as evidence that “people are beginning to understand” the dangers of military action. French President Francois Hollande told the daily Le Monde that he still supported taking “firm” punitive action over an attack he said had caused “irreparable” harm to the Syrian people, adding that he would work closely with France’s allies.