US officials seem to be ruling out for now direct involvement of US military in the Syrian civil war, but administration officials are preparing to provide aid to the rebels in indirect ways, perhaps utilizing third countries like Saudi Arabia It will also turn a blind eye to direct military assistance to the rebels from other countries. Russia also appears to be preparing for an international escalation of the conflict. According to State Department officials, Russia is continuing to deliver arms to the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad, and the latest shipment included large numbers of advanced anti-aircraft missile systems (SR-17s). Establishment of an aerial embargo similar to that imposed on Libya would require elimination of Syria's robust air defense system. Some war mongers in the Senate have already started calling for bombing Syria.
A WikiLeaks email indicates the Pentagon may have already started planning actions to undermine the Assad regime. An analyst for Statfor, a global intelligence firm that supplies intelligence services to international corporations and the US government, wrote of a December 6th meeting attended by members of the US Air Force's Strategic Studies Group and allied liaison officers. According to the analyst, "they said without saying that SOF [special operations forces] teams are already on the ground focused on recce [reconnaissance] missions and training opposition forces". The goal of the activity was "to prepare contingencies and be ready to act within 2-3 months." The attendees denied any planning for an air campaign, but that the idea was "...to commit guerrilla attacks, assassination campaigns, try to break the back of the Alawite forces, elicit collapse from within." US officials deny any involvement in planning attacks on Syria to date. US military officials continue to stress in public the difficulties of dismantling the Assad regime on a unilateral basis*. Assad continues to kill his own people, causing thousands of Syrian refugees to cross Syria's borders into Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan.
*the Assad government may not be as one-dimensional as our feckless corporate mass media habitually presents to the US public. All the prime ministers who have served in Bashir al-Assad's government have been Sunnis; similarly key ministries have been manned from outside the 10% Alawi minority. Professor Piccinin of the Ecole Européen de Bruxelles I writes that the other components of Syria's patchwork of ethnic groups are not yet closing ranks against the Alawite government. The majority of the country is calm outside the cities of Homs and Hama, nexus of an opposition that is supported by Qatar and Saudi Arabia as well as France. This complex reality of the situation, not the surreal public opinion campaign, explains why Russia is demanding that any UN resolution concerning Syria must be applied to all violent factions, not just the Baath government. Right-wing demands for bombs away on Syria may be motivated in part by the possibility of dealing regional power Iran, which supports Assad, a strategic setback in Syria. Iran is generally considered to the geopolitical winner of the Iraq War.