Why Kerry Wants to Strike Syria

June 19 (Bloomberg) -- Yesterday, shortly after I posted acolumn on Secretary of State John Kerry’s push to have the WhiteHouse approve U.S. strikes on Syrian airfields -- and how JointChiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey pushed back stronglyagainst the idea -- I heard from a number of people who supportKerry’s stance and think that the Pentagon is beingunnecessarily timid.

(I myself am one of the approximately three columnists inthe U.S. who don’t know exactly what President Barack Obamaought to do in Syria. On the one hand, the Syrian civil warrepresents a humanitarian nightmare and an acute strategicchallenge; on the other, I don’t think the U.S. is capable ofmediating a Sunni-Shiite civil war, and so shouldn’t try).