US preparing Syria no-fly zone

"Washington is considering a no-fly zone to help Assad's opponents," an unnamed Western diplomat told Reuters on Friday.

U.S. officials have said that the no-fly zone inside Syria would be enforced from Jordanian territory to protect and train the militants.

The no-fly zone option came immediately after White House National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes on Thursday accused the Syrian government of using chemical weapons against the foreign-backed militants.

Rhodes claimed that up to 150 people were killed in the operations by Syria. Damascus denied the allegations.

“The White House published a statement full of lies about the use of chemical weapons in Syria, based on fabricated information, through which it is trying to hold the Syrian government responsible for such use,” Syria’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

President Barack Obama has threatened Syria against the use of chemical weapons, describing it as Washington’s red line.

The U.S. has sent about 4,000 troops along with a battery of Patriot missiles and F-16 jets to Syria’s neighbor Jordan.

The U.S. is entering another war in the Middle East at a time when it is struggling with a number of scandals at home. The IRS scandal, the Benghazi cover up, and NSA’s data mining of Americans have put the Obama administration on the defensive.

Meanwhile, a majority of Americans are against a military attack against Syria. A poll conducted by Gallup last month showed that 68 percent of Americans said the United States should not take any military action in Syria.

Jim Dean, columnist at Veterans Today said the White House’s plan to ship lethal weapons to anti-government militants in Syria is another “insane policy” by the United States.

“It’s just an insane policy and it’s absolutely making the U.S. people more insecure rather than secure,” Dean said in a phone interview.

HK