Pentagon Details Options for U.S. Military Action in Syria

America’s highest-ranking military officer on Monday provided congress with the first detailed list of options for military intervention in Syria and their associated costs. In a letter to Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, laid out a range of operations — including training and advising the rebels, carrying out long-range strikes against military targets, establishing a no-fly zone, creating a buffer zone, and securing Syria’s chemical weapons sites — that would likely “further the narrow military objective of helping the opposition and placing more pressure on the regime.”

The options themselves are not new, but this was the first time the Pentagon has explicitly described the challenges and costs associated with each. Striking Syrian military targets, for example, would cost “billions” of dollars and require “hundreds of aircraft, ships, submarines and other enablers.” Securing the country’s chemical weapons stockpiles, meanwhile, would demand thousands of ground and special operations forces, and cost more than $1 billion per month.

But implementing any of these options, Dempsey warned, could pull the United States into another war. “Once we take action, we should be prepared for what comes next,” he wrote. “Deeper involvement is hard to avoid.”

Egypt: The family of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy on Mondaythreatened legal action against the military for holding him incommunicado and without charge in an undisclosed military facility. At a news conference in Cairo, the son of the deposed leader told reporters: “We will take all legal procedures, locally and internationally, against [Defense Minister] Abdel Fattah Sisi, who abducted President Mohamed Morsy.” Meanwhile, clashes on Tuesday between supporters and opponents of Morsy left six dead in Cairo