Syria a national security threat to the U.S.?

[alcibiades_mystery]

3. Normalization of chemical warfare is a national security threat to all nations, though

I agree with you that limiting the question to the Syria situation and the short-term makes the whole thing sound ridiculous. Yes.

In the long view, however, if there's a creeping acceptance of chemical warfare and the use of nerve agents on civilian populations to achieve military ends, well, that's fucked. I know, I know...depleted uranium, agent orange, Willy Peter, etc. Yes, of course.

I should note that I'm against military action in Syria at this time. There should be other ways to deter and degrade Assad's chemical weapons capabilities and generally heighten the cost of chemical weapons usage. But you're right that things aren't simple: if the choice is between letting blatant use of chemical nerve agents on civilian neighborhoods just "go," and doing something, I'm going to lean toward doing something every time.

Chemical warfare cannot be allowed to be normalized, or trivialized, or seen as an "inexpensive" option. How we get there on Syria, of course, remains to be seen.