Once again, a Middle Eastern nation has used weapons that could be dangerous to the international community.  Once again, the United States feels the compulsion to draw a line in the sand and is calling for the downfall of the oppressive regime. And once again, the United Nations is still a long way from issuing its usual stern denunciation without action.

The whole Syrian scene reeks of the prelude to the Iraq war under the Bush administration. It’s difficult to convince an American population grown disillusioned with dealing with somebody else’s problem that this time it’ll be different: this time, there’s solid proof of the attacks; this time, the rest of the world will help because of the international pact against chemical warfare; this time, it’ll just be a quick jaunt in to destroy the weapons of mass destruction.

Best of luck to the poor sods who get to sell that case.

Secretary of State John Kerry recently took up the salesman’s mantle in a Sept. 4 address to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, claiming the Iraq fiasco has made him “especially sensitive to never again asking any member of Congress to vote on faulty intelligence.”

I’ll still question the intellectual integrity of those Congress members already willing to go to war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

That chemical weapons killed a large number of people in Damascus Aug. 21 is not in question. Photographs and video of the victims have been readily and rapidly available for the world to view.

But no available evidence has yet proven that any Syrian government or military official ordered the attack. Assad has shown willingness in the past to use military might to crush rebel forces, including artillery strikes and jet fighter attacks. But would he be so foolhardy as to risk using chemical weapons – a method of warfare considered horrifying and illegal the world over?

Can Assad be held accountable if one of his commanders launched the attack without higher approval? What will be worse for the Syrian people – the continued civil war, or the addition of American bombs into the already volatile mix?

Chemical weapons have been banned since the Geneva Convention for good reason. Someone needs to be held accountable for these attacks.

But let’s make sure we get the right people this time.