Syria Audio Analysis: Why Assad Used Chemical Weapons…& How He Miscalculated

Scott Lucas – EAworldview : I spoke with Monocle 24′s The Globalist: Asia on Tuesday night about the situation inside Syria and the imminence of US-led airstrikes:

Listen to discussion from 7:26 on The Globalist: http://monocle.com/radio/shows/the-globalist-asia/  Asia homepage or in a pop-out window http://monocle.dl.groovygecko.com/m24/12200107.mp3

Take-away points:

1. Why the regime carried out chemical weapons attacks last Wednesday: “This was a last throw of the dice to ‘win’ the conflict….Assad did not think the West, including the US, would react.”

2. “I don’t Iran is going to do anything with its military. The Iranians are almost panicked. They do not have the forces to square off with the US, and even their options for asymmetric warfare are limited.”

3. “Whether these airstrikes take out the Assad regime depends on 1) how sustained the strikes are and 2) whether the US and the West now provide support to insurgents on the ground.”

About the Author

Scott Lucas Scott Lucas is a professor of American Studies at the University of Birmingham and editor-in-chief of EA WorldView. He is a specialist in US and British foreign policy and international relations, especially the Middle East and Iran. Formerly he worked as a journalist in the US, writing for newspapers including the Guardian and The Independent and was an essayist for The New Statesman before he founded EA WorldView in 2009