U.S. Planning 'for Every Contingency' over Syria, May Boost Strikes Scale

The Obama administration is already planning "for every contingency" in case of any fallout from U.S. military strikes against the Syrian regime, a top White House official said Sunday, as a defense official said the U.S. could increase the scale of strikes as needed.

White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough refused to be drawn on whether President Barack Obama would go ahead with any strikes if Congress refuses to give military action a green light, nor would he be drawn on any specifics.

"The risks are many fold. One, the risk that somehow we get dragged into the middle of an ongoing civil war," McDonough said on CNN's State of the Union as Obama prepares to address the nation on Tuesday about the Syria crisis.

"We have to obviously be very careful and very targeted and very limited in our engagement so we do not get dragged into the middle of this. And then there's obviously risk of reaction and retaliation against our friends," McDonough acknowledged.

"We are obviously providing for it and planning for every contingency in that regard and we'll be ready for that."

The Obama administration has for the past couple of weeks sought to shore up support both at home and abroad for limited military strikes against Syria in retaliation for what it says is the regime's use of chemical weapons in a Damascus suburb.

After days of classified and open hearings last week, the full Congress is due to debate Obama's call for military strikes when it returns from its summer break on Monday. However there remains deep skepticism about involving the United States in another war abroad.

A congressional panel Saturday released graphic videos of what it said was the August 21 attack, showing men and children writhing in pain, apparently foaming at the mouth and vomiting.

"I hope every member of Congress before he or she decides how to cast a vote will look at the videos. It's unbelievably horrendous," McDonough told Fox News Sunday, blaming the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad for unleashing chemical arms.

He said more than 400 children were believed "killed by this heinous attack using this weapon which has been prohibited in much of the rest of the world for a hundred years."

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was meeting Arab League leaders in Paris on Sunday on a diplomatic offensive to win more international support for U.S. military strikes, after G20 nations emerged split from a summit in Russia with only just over half calling for a "strong response" to the chemical weapons attack.

"We do have plenty of friends who are standing with us. Let's remember where the president said it's an international red line. Going back almost 100 years, 1925, the Geneva protocol," McDonough said on CNN.

But he admitted that so far he didn't believe there was specific military support offered by other countries.

"Not at this point but it is specific support for holding him to account and it is a recognition that it happened. We are no longer debating whether it happened or whether it didn't happen. That's important."

Meanwhile, a defense official told Agence France Presse that the scale and purpose of the operation against Syria has not changed in recent weeks, although U.S. forces would adjust as needed.

"We will continue to review our targeting and targeting options as the Syrian government adapts over time," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"We are working to the same objective that President (Barack) Obama has outlined," he insisted, responding to a report in the Los Angeles Times Sunday

The strikes against the Assad regime could last longer than a day, officials have said.

The Los Angeles Times had reported Sunday the Pentagon was readying more intense and longer attacks on Syria than originally planned, set to last three days.

War planners now aim to unleash a heavy barrage of missile strikes to be followed swiftly by additional attacks on targets that may have been missed or remain standing after the initial launch, the Times cited officials as saying.

Two U.S. officers told the newspaper that the White House asked for an expanded target list to include "many more" than the initial list of around 50 targets.

The move is part of an effort to obtain additional firepower to damage Assad's dispersed forces.

The top U.S. military officer, General Martin Dempsey, told lawmakers last week there would be an "initial" set of targets and then a secondary list of targets.

Dempsey suggested American forces would be able to shift strike plans even as the Syrian regime attempts to disperse equipment.

Pentagon planners are now considering using Air Force bombers, as well as five U.S. missile destroyers currently patrolling the eastern Mediterranean Sea, to launch cruise missiles and air-to-surface missiles from far out of range of Syrian air defenses, according to the newspaper report.

The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier strike group with one cruiser and three destroyers positioned in the Read Sea can also fire cruise missiles at Syria.

"There will be several volleys and an assessment after each volley, but all within 72 hours and a clear indication when we are done," an officer familiar with the planning told the Times.

The intensified military planning comes as Obama prepares to personally make his case to the American people and further press reluctant lawmakers on the need for action after Assad allegedly used chemical weapons on his own people last month.

Obama is scheduled to tape interviews Monday with anchors of the three major broadcast networks, as well as with PBS, CNN and Fox News.

The interviews, to air that night, will precede Obama's address to the nation Tuesday ahead of an expected full Senate vote.

The president favors a limited attack with only a reduced number of warplanes to drop bombs over Syria, according to the Times.

Amid doubts a limited U.S. offensive would sufficiently hamper Assad's military capabilities, one officer told the newspaper the planned operation would amount to a "show of force" over several days that would not fundamentally change the situation on the ground.

The planned U.S. strike "will not strategically impact the current situation in the war, which the Syrians have well in hand, though fighting could go on for another two years," another U.S. officer said.