The Moral Case for a Syria Strike

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Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Beyond a reasonable doubt, theforces of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons on alarge scale and should be punished. That’s where I end up. Butthe case isn’t cut and dried.

Sometimes, standing on principle doesn’t get you very far.The problem is, which principle? The norm forbidding use ofchemical weapons, the norm of restraint in use of military forceand the norm of upholding international law are in conflict. Inaddition, predicting the results of action (or inaction) is amatter of weighing probabilities, not certainties.