Panetta talks of risk for US in Syria
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The top US military leader said Wednesday that US armed forces would be ready if called upon to get involved in Syria, but he raised serious concerns about outside extremists and the fate of Syria's chemical and biological weapons.
Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta offered a cautionary note to the call by the panel's top Republican, Sen. John McCain, to launch US airstrikes against President Bashar Assad's regime to end the crackdown on the Syrian people. "This terrible situation has no simple answers," Panetta told the panel. He later added, "For us to act unilaterally would be a mistake." (AP)
