Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — Congress has challenged the U.S. military assessment on
Syria.

Leading members of the House and Senate have dismissed the assessment by
the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the cost of any U.S. military intervention in
Syria.

The lawmakers, ranking members of major committees, asserted that the assessment by Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey ignored U.S. military power, particularly its stand-off weapons capabilities.

“While I do not profess to be a military expert, it is clear that this analysis does not fully reflect an even more limited option that some have advocated, which would involve cruise missiles or other stand-off weapon
strikes,” Rep. Eliot Engel said.

In a letter to Dempsey, Engel, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, questioned the assessment on U.S. military intervention
in Syria, relayed to Congress in July. Engel, regarded as an ally of
President Barack Obama, asserted that the Joint Chiefs failed to include
limited and less expensive military options that could quickly degrade the
Army and Air Force of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“While a more limited strike of this nature would not degrade the
regime’s military capabilities to the same extent as the option outlined in
your letter, it could help prevent the Assad regime from using aircraft
against innocent civilians and members of the opposition that the
administration has decided to train and arm,” Engel said in the Aug. 5
letter. “It could also help reduce the flow of arms from Iran, Russia and others that continue to assist the Assad regime.”

Engel marked the first senior Democrat to attack the assessment by the
Joint Chiefs, which set any U.S. intervention in Syria as requiring hundreds
of aircraft and ships. Earlier, Sen. John McCain, the ranking Republican on
the Senate Armed Forces Committee, said Dempsey’s options on Syria were
misleading.

“In my many years, I have seen a lot of military commanders overstate
what is needed to conduct military action for one reason or another,” McCain
said. “But rarely have I seen an effort as disingenuous and exaggerated as
what Gen. Dempsey proposed.”

Dempsey has not responded to the congressional criticism. But a senior
defense official said the Joint Chiefs chairman does not envision limited
stand-off strikes as hurting the Assad regime.

“The context in which the general provided those options was what might
tip the balance in Syria,” the official told the U.S. news website The
Cable. “A host of lower-end options for the use of military force are
clearly available, but to what end?”

  Bashar Assad, Congress: Dempsey ignored use of cruise missiles in degrading Syrian forces, Gen. Martin Dempsey, Rep. Eliot Engel, Sen. John McCain