Syria: crossing the red line and U.S. action forward

Guests:  Brian Katulis and Michael Noonan

Back in August 2012, President Obama warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that if he used chemical weapons against his own people, he would be crossing a “red line” and that such actions would be a “game changer” in regard to U.S. involvement in Syria‘s two-year civil war. Last week, the Obama administration told Congress that it believes that small amounts of sarin gas have been used in Syria but at a press conference yesterday, the President said more investigation is needed to determine who used the weapons before the U.S. would commit to any military intervention. In this hour of Radio Times we’ll take a look at what crossing a “red line” means when it comes to foreign policy and what options are available to the U.S. and the international community to help end the conflict in Syria which has resulted in the deaths of over 80,000 civilians and threatens to create turmoil in the larger region. Our guests are BRIAN KATULIS of the Center for American Progress and MICHAEL NOONAN of the Foreign Policy Research Institute.