In a clear bid to swing the American public opinion — and the large number of reluctant lawmakers — in favour of President Barack Obama’s proposed military action against Syria, the US authorities have released graphic videos of last month’s alleged chemical attack to top media outlets for wider dissemination ahead of the upcoming Congressional vote.
Even as the Obama administration expects the video offensive to turn the tide in Congress, the Pentagon is preparing for a three-day missile blitz on Syria of greater intensity than planned before in a declared bid to degrade the capability of the Bashar al-Assad regime to launch further attacks of the kind.
President Obama and his top aides also plan to blanket the airwaves over the next few days in an all-out to bid to sell his Syria plan to a war-weary American public. Obama himself is set to appear on the top six television networks — ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox and PBS — to make his case, and follow it up with a national address on Tuesday night.
Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday defended the administration’s distribution of the videos to help convince Americans and Congress that a military intervention against the Syrian regime is necessary. The Senate Intelligence Committee has also put on its website 13 of the videos authenticated by the CIA.
“The majority of members of Congress — House and Senate — are undecided. And that’s why the videos are being shown and the briefings are taking place,” Kerry said in Paris on Sunday in the midst of his efforts to drum up European support for the US military strike.
“Those videos make it clear to people that these are real human beings, real children, parents being affected in ways that are unacceptable to anybody, anywhere by any standards,” said Kerry.
Shown first on CNN, the videos depict the gruesome scene of what is alleged to be the result of a chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime on the outskirts of Damascus on August 21. The videos show men sprawled on a tile floor, shirtless and convulsing, while children are seen unable to control their shaking and flailing, amid panic and screams in the background.
They have already been shown to Senators. They are expected to be played on Monday at a briefing for all members of the House of Representatives as they reassemble after a five-week recess.
The Pentagon, meanwhile, is preparing for a longer bombardment of Syria. Quoting senior officials, the los Angeles Times spoke of plans for a heavy barrage of missile strikes followed soon after by more attacks on targets that the opening salvos failed to destroy.
The push for such strike comes amid new calculations that the Assad regime has dispersed its military assets over the past week or two even as the US is engaged in a national debate on the military strike which Obama is intent on. Officials say the strikes would not target chemical weapons as such, but degrade the regime’s capability to use them again.
With plans for an expanded target list than the 50-odd targets envisaged initially, the Pentagon is said to be weighing whether to use Air Force bombers, in addition to five warships now on patrol in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, for launching the missiles.