Five reasons not to attack Syria, and one elegant solution

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A wounded Syrian woman walks with her children after airstrikes on a rebel area of the war-torn northern city of Aleppo. (Mohammed al-Khatieb / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Mourners attend a funeral for men killed during battles with members of the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. (Mahmud Al-Halabi / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Rebel fighters carry a man’s body at the Aleppo headquarters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria after he was allegedly killed by the AlQaeda-linked group in January. (Medo Halab / AFP/ Getty Images)

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A Syrian man helps an injured resident following an airstrike in Aleppo’s Maadi neighborhood. (Mohammed al-Khatieb / AFP/ Getty Images)

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A Syrian man reacts after an airstrike by government forces on the city of Aleppo. (Mohammed al-Khatieb / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Rebel fighters inside a building during clashes with pro-government forces in the Sheikh al-Said neighborhood of Syria’s northern city of Aleppo. (Medo Halab / AFP/ Getty Images)

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An opposition fighter runs through a hole in a wall to avoid sniper fire by regime forces during clashes in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo. (KARAM AL-MASRI / AFP/Getty Images)

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Opposition fighters open fire from behind a car during fighting in the Salaheddin district of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported fierce fighting in Damascus province between rebels and troops backed by pro-regime militias and fighters from Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah. (KARAM AL-MASRI / AFP/Getty Images)

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A Syrian rebel aims his weapon during clashes with government forces in the streets near Aleppo international airport in northern Syria. (Stephen J. Boitano / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Rebel fighters duck as they run behind a barricade to avoid being fired at by Syrian government forces in the Old City of Aleppo. (JM Lopez / AFP/ Getty Images)

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A fighter allied with Syrian President Bashar Assad runs across the street after fighting with rebels in the Yarmouk refugee camp in the capital, Damascus. (Anwar Amro / AFP/ Getty Images)

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A fighter of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, allied with Syrian President Bashar Assad, jumps through the window of a destroyed building in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus. (Anwar Amro / AFP/ Getty Images)

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An opposition fighter runs in front of a sniper curtain in the industrial area of Syria’s eastern town of Deir Ezzor during clashes with government forces. (Abo Shuja / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Free Syrian Army fighters clean their weapons and check ammunition at their base on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria. (Khalil Hamra / Associated Press)

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Syrian government forces patrol the Khaldiyeh district of Syria’s central city of Homs. The Syrian government announced on July 29 the capture of Khaldiyeh, a key rebel district in Homs. (Joseph Eid / AFP/Getty Images)

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A Syrian national flag is waved in Damascus to show support for President Bashar Assad. (Louai Beshara / AFP/Getty Images)

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A rebel fighter takes aim at regime forces in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. (Louai Abo Al-Jod / AFP/Getty Images)

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A man stands near destroyed buildings after reported airstrikes by Syrian government forces in the rebel-held northwestern Syrian province of Idlib. (Abu Amar Al-Taftanaz / AFP/Getty Images)

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Mustafa Abu Bekir, 23, second from left, meets relatives after crossing the Turkish Cilvegozu gate border. Abu Bekir said he was severely wounded by a bomb dropped from a Syrian army warplane while fighting with the Free Syrian Army in Idlib. (Gregorio Borgia / Associated Press)

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A man carries a boy who was severely wounded during heavy fighting between Syrian rebels and troops last year in Idlib. (Rodrigo Abd / Associated Press)

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Syrian President Bashar Assad arrives at a dinner event in Damascus on the last week of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (Virginie Nguyen Hoang / AFP/Getty Images)

By Doyle McManus

Sept. 9, 2013 12:02 PM PT

In my Sunday column, I argued that there were good reasons for the United States (and its allies, if any) to attack Syria for its government’s alleged use of chemical weapons, but also good reasons to be cautious. I came down on the side of limited military action, but reluctantly, with plenty of doubts.

Not surprisingly, the column drew a flood of responses from readers. Most disagreed with me -- also not surprising, since polls suggest public opinion is still running 2 to 1 against an attack.

The arguments against military intervention deserve good answers, and President Obama and his aides haven’t answered all of them well yet. Here are some of the points readers made:

The first question is evidentiary: Do we know that the Syrian government launched that chemical weapons attack? This isn’t like Iraq, where the weapons didn’t exist, and the notion that the rebels used chemical weapons against their own side is far-fetched. But the administration needs to present more evidence publicly that this attack came from the government side. “If there is any doubt about who did this, the answer has to be no,” Sue Smith tweeted.

There’s the moral argument that the United States shouldn’t be bombing anybody, or at least any country that hasn’t attacked us first. “What level of Syrian civilian casualties due to U.S. strikes is acceptable?” asked Ted Rosenblatt of Pacific Palisades. This is, of course, our current version of the ancient debate over what constitutes a just war. Would a U.S. military strike prevent more deaths than it caused? That needs to be part of the administration’s case too.

Then there’s the practical argument: Would U.S. missile strikes succeed in deterring Bashar Assad from launching further chemical attacks? “It’s not clear at all that an attack like this would truly operate as a deterrent,” Jim Osborne of Sherman Oaks wrote. Fair point; I think the administration’s logic is sound on this point, but complete certainty isn’t available.

There’s also the “inconsistency” argument: “We were quite comfortable when Saddam [Hussein of Iraq] gassed the Kurds,” objected Margo Kasdan of Seal Beach. Or, from Mike Benbrook: “So killing 1,000 Egyptians with tanks and bullets is OK, but killing 1,000 Syrians with gas is verboten?” But no two countries are exactly alike; if you want to insist on consistency in foreign policy, you’ll end up arguing for intervention everywhere or else intervention nowhere.

The most interesting comments to me, though, were the ones demanding a more thorough search for alternatives to military strikes. “Why not seriously consider … bringing the evidence to the U.N. Security Council and the World Court?” asked Martin Fiebert of Seal Beach. In fact, that’s likely to happen in the coming weeks.

But the most intriguing alternative came not from our readers but from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who proposed putting Syria’s chemical weapons under international control and then destroying them. Now that would be an elegant solution.

ALSO:

To strike, or not to strike, Syria?

As Obama hesitates, Israel worries

Don’t use U.S. credibility as a reason to attack Syria

Follow Doyle McManus on Twitter @DoyleMcManus and Google+