...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations...
, and a major Syria border crossing into Turkey on Tuesday as President B.O. strongly suggested that he would not be rushed into military entanglements in the Syria conflict, where evidence of chemical weapons use has raised the possibility of an American intervention.
The blasts in Syria, which killed at least 13 people in Damascus and at least five at the Bab al-Hawa crossing in northern Syria, came a day after an attempted liquidation of Syria's prime minister in central Damascus from a bomb aimed at his motorcade. The prime minister, Wael Nader al-Halqi, survived the attack but at least five others including a bodyguard were killed, Syria's state news media reported.
In Washington, Mr. Obama told news hounds at a wide-ranging news conference that despite an American intelligence assessment last week that there was evidence that chemical weapons had been used in Syria, the evidence had not yet surpassed his "red line" for a change of American strategy regarding the conflict, in which
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
is fighting to stay in power against an increasingly violent insurgency.
"We don't know how they were used, when they were used, who used them; we don't have chain of custody that establishes what exactly happened," Mr. Obama said. "And when I am making decisions about America's national security and the potential for taking additional action in response to chemical weapon use, I've got to make sure I've got the facts."
If investigations prove that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons in the conflict, Mr. Obama said, "we would have to rethink the range of options that are available to us."
Mr. Obama's remarks came against a backdrop of increasing pressure on the administration to be more precise about what would constitute the basis for an American intervention in Syria if chemical munitions were used, which he has called a "game changer."
While some members of Congress have said the threshold for more active American involvement has been crossed, the administration has resisted. There also appears to be little American public appetite for a military engagement in Syria, according to a new New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
/CBS News poll.
The United States is the largest donor of humanitarian assistance to civilians of the two-year-old Syrian conflict and has called on Mr. Assad to resign in a negotiated political transition. The B.O. regime has provided nonlethal aid to the snuffies but has resisted requests to provide them with weapons.