Obama Fears Syria Intervention

US President Barack Obama said he has been wrestling with the question whether a US military intervention in Syria’s 22-crisis would help resolve the bloody conflict or make things worse.

In a pair of interviews, Obama responded to critics who say the United States has not been involved enough in Syria.
“In a situation like Syria, I have to ask: can we make a difference in that situation?” Obama said in an interview with The New Republic published on the magazine’s website.

In parallel, Obama said he has to weigh the benefit of a military intervention with the ability of the Pentagon to support troops still in Afghanistan, where the United States is withdrawing combat forces after a dozen years of war.
“Could it trigger even worse violence or the use of chemical weapons? What offers the best prospect of a stable post-al-Assad regime? And how do I weigh tens of thousands who’ve been killed in Syria versus the tens of thousands who are currently being killed in the Congo?” he wondered.

In an interview with CBS television program “60 Minutes,” Obama bristled when asked to respond to criticism that the United States has been reluctant to engage in foreign policy issues like the Syrian crisis.
Obama said his administration wants to make sure US action would not backfire.
“We do nobody a service when we leap before we look, where we … take on things without having thought through all the consequences of it,” Obama told CBS.
“We are not going to be able to control every aspect of every transition and transformation” in conflicts around the world, he said. “Sometimes they’re going to go sideways.”