“Here’s what we wrestle with: there are huge costs and unintended consequences that go with a military intervention that could last for many years.” So said Benjamin Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national-security adviser, in an interview with Dexter Filkins this spring about White House policy on Syria. At the end of last week, however, we learned that the wrestling match was over. On Thursday, Rhodes announced that we are increasing our assistance to the rebels fighting Bashar al-Assad. That assistance, other officials quickly declared, involves small arms and ammunition. It’s a military intervention: we just don’t know the costs or the consequences or the number of years.
via Why Obama Shouldn't Join the War in Syria : The New Yorker.