Why Do We Even Care About Syria’s Chemical Weapons?

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Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations estimates thatmore than 100,000 Syrians have died since the country’s civilwar began in March 2011. More die every day. But the U.S. is notconsidering military action to save them.

The strikes that the Barack Obama administration favors,and that Congress is now debating, have a more limited purpose:to ensure that Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad uses conventionalweapons to massacre his people rather than the chemical varietythat recently killed 1,400 in the suburbs of Damascus. The hopeis that U.S. intervention will encourage future tyrants to killby firepower rather than by sarin.