The stated motivation is not the actual motivation. Moreover there is no convincing evidence to date that the Syrian government has deployed chemical weapons.

The stated motivation is not the actual motivation. Moreover there is no convincing evidence to date that the Syrian government has deployed chemical weapons. In fact there is little corroborating evidence that typical chemical weapons were used at all. On the other hand we do know that the conditions were such that the use of chemical weapons by Assad would have been completely irrational, providing little benefit while breaching well publicized conditions for the intervention of powerful adversaries in a war that he was winning. As Galloway put it: "First, that there is no compelling evidence, to use the leader of the opposition's words, that the Assad regime is responsible for this crime yet. Not that they are not bad enough to do it. Everybody knows they are bad enough to do it. The question is, are they mad enough to do it? To launch a chemical weapons attack in Damascus on the very day that a United Nations chemical weapons inspection team arrives in Damascus must be a new definition of madness. "