SYRIA: ‘You might hope for the best but you have to plan for the worst’

Peters on Syria: 'You have to plan for the worst'

Fox News Strategic Analyst Lt. Col. Ralph Peters spoke to KT McFarland on DefCon 3

President Barack Obama has bipartisan support for Syria strike but one analyst says not enough discussion has taken place yet. Fox News Strategic Analyst Lt. Col. Ralph Peters spoke to KT McFarland on DefCon 3.

"I am a strategic fundamentalist. I like to start with basic questions. And I hear so much blather right now, from both sides of the aisle in Washington, about how we are going to intervene in Syria and we're gonna do it cheaply and it's gonna be clean, nice and neat, tie it off with a bow, no problem, no boots on the ground blah blah blah. What I am not hearing KT is a serious discussion about our long term strategic aims, the means we are willing to allocate to achieve those aims, whether or not we believe those aims can be achieved, and whether or not pursuing those aims is likely to give us a positive return on that investment."

Peters says the United States should learn from involvement in past conflicts:

"If we have learned anything from Iraq, from staying in Afghanistan, from Libya, it should be that you might hope for the best, but you plan for the worst. You've gotta war game all the possible scenarios and you've gotta discuss them because once we touch that Syrian tar baby we're stuck to it. I just don't believe that we can lob a few cruise missiles into the sand, declare victory and get off scot free, it’s not gonna happen that way.

Secretary of State Kerry says he does not want to take the option of boots on the ground off the table. Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is warning that any "punitive" action taken against Syria could unleash more turmoil and bloodshed in that nation's civil war.
Watch the full interview above and read more from KT here