U.S. president seeks to quell noise of war drums on Syria and Iran

March 7, 2012 – WASHINGTON – U.S. President Barack Obama has described the violence in Syria as “heartbreaking” but cautioned there is no simple solution, warning unilateral military action would be a mistake. Mr. Obama, speaking during a White House press conference this morning, also promised to take a firm but sober approach to dealing with the nuclear situation in Iran. “What’s happening in Syria is heartbreaking, and outrageous, and what you’ve seen is the international community mobilize against the Assad regime,” he said, adding that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has “lost legitimacy of his people. The actions that he is now taking against his own people is inexcusable,” Mr. Obama said. “On the other hand, for us to take military action, unilaterally, as some have suggested, or to think that somehow there’s some simple solution, I think is a mistake.” Yesterday, top Republican senator John McCain called for U.S. air strikes on Syrian forces to protect population centers and create safe havens for opponents of the regime. “Time is running out,” Mr. McCain said, with the United Nations reporting more than 7,500 people killed in Syria in the past year. He added “the only realistic way to save civilian lives was “with foreign air power.” But President Obama cautioned the situation was not the same as in Libya, when the United States used its air force to back a NATO no-fly zone. He said in Libya, the United States “had the full cooperation of the region, Arab states, and we knew that we could execute very effectively in a relatively short period of time. This is a much more complicated situation,” he said. “Ultimately, this dictator will fall, as dictators in the past have fallen. But the notion that the way to solve every one of these problems is to deploy our military, you know, that hasn’t been true in the past, and it won’t be true now.” –ABC