Syria no-fly zone could cost billion dollars a month: US

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says imposing a no-fly zone against Syria would cost the United States one billion dollars a month and put US aircraft at risk of being shot down.

In a letter to the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which was released on Monday, Army General Martin Dempsey warned Senator Carl Levin that thousands of American troops would also be required to establish a no-fly zone.

The use of such force is “no less than an act of war,” he said, and would come at a time of growing fiscal restraint on the Pentagon.

“Some options may not be feasible in time or cost without compromising our security elsewhere,” Dempsey said.

The general’s letter underscores the reluctance of Pentagon leaders to take military action in Syria. His comments reflect the views of military commanders, who have been critical of proposals to intervene in Syria.

However, some American officials are pressing the White House to launch a military strike against Syria to end the conflict.

Retired Marine Corps General James Mattis also told a security conference in Aspen, Colorado that a no-fly zone would be “very expensive.”

“It will have tankers. It will have fighter planes up constantly. It will drain the Treasury. It will take our hard-pressed military into one more fray. It’s going to require helicopters and special forces to recover the pilots who get shot down,” he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency David Shedd warned that the two-year-old conflict in Syria could last “many, many months to multiple years.”

A majority of Americans believe it is not in the national interests of the US to send troops into Syria and also oppose arming militant groups in the conflict, a recent poll conducted by Quinnipiac University showed.