The United States has to respond militarily to Syria's gassing of civilians. The only question is how.
The best options that have surfaced in public documents include a military strike against Syria's airfields since this would deny its air force any bases from which to strike civilian targets.
Another logical possibility is a secret war using commandos on the ground and drone strikes against selected high-value individuals in the Assad regime and its Hezbollah allies. I favor this latter course. We need the commandos on the ground simply because we have to be able to identify suitable targets for the drones and suitable moments to strike. Perhaps the "boots on the ground" will be of a sort where the commandos go in for a short period, collect necessary intelligence and then the drones are launched, a variation on the Osama bin Laden raid.
Anything less than a tough military strategy will tempt the North Koreans and Iranians to test us in ways far more dangerous than anything Syria might do.
Robert L. Fisher
Delmar