Strike on Syria could draw U.S. into imminent civil war: Report

A U.S. strike on Syrian government targets in response to the alleged chemical weapons attack last week has the potential to draw the United States into the country's civil war, former U.S. officials have said.

The officials warned that history does not bode well for such limited retaliatory interventions.

According to the Washington Post, images of the corpses of civilians, including children, killed in last week's chemical attack in a Damascus suburb struck a powerful chord in Washington.

The White House is scrambling to gain international support for a days-long bombing campaign targeting military sites, as the U.S. Navy destroyers are stationed in the eastern Mediterranean.

With Congress in recess, the lead-up to a military strike on Syria has unfolded with relatively little substantive debate on Capitol Hill about the risks and merits of a cruise missile strike, the report said.

According to the report, after a few conservative Republicans insisted that the Obama administration needed congressional authorization before ordering a strike, House Speaker John A. Boehner (Ohio) urged the White house to conduct "meaningful consultation with members of Congress" and articulate "clearly defined objectives" before giving the Pentagon the green light.

Republican Scott Rigell, in an interview said, said that a swift military response is justified if the United States faces an imminent threat.

Lawmakers have often been quick to back military interventions begun in response to the type of international outrage sparked by Syria's alleged use of chemical weapons last week, the first major nerve gas attack in more than 25 years, the report added.