Military Analyst: World is Turning Its Head as Syrian Conflict Grows

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has denied taking any role in the Houla massacre last week and instead blamed it on terrorists. Half of the nearly 100 people slaughtered were children, and the Assad government has not been proactive in stopping the growing violence as the country slips closer to civil war. Retired Major General Bob Scales told Jamie Colby on America’s News HQ that there isn’t much the U.S. can do to help.

He said that Secretary Leon Panetta has committed the military to provide humanitarian aid in the future, “but he also said there will be no military assistance and certainly no military campaign until

it’s approved by the Arab League and by the United Nations Security Council … that’s impossible for now because both Russia and China will block any intervention by the United States.”

Scales said, “Words like ethnic cleansing are beginning to be used inside the beltway here in Washington, so there’s this sense of frustration particularly among those non-military types in this town that something needs to be done militarily. But I’ll just tell you right now, given the weakness of the opposition, the strength of the Syrian military, the reluctance of either the Arab League or the U.N. or NATO to get involved in this conflict, I firmly believe that this is going to get much much worse as time goes on … Syria is in dire straits right now and the world seems to be turning its head.”