The Obama administration is currently 'deliberating' over whether to launch a military assault on Syria, Joint Chief of Staff General Martin Dempsey told the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday.

In response to Senator John McCain's urgings for direct US military strikes on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, Dempsey stated:

About the use of kinetic strikes. That issue is under deliberation inside of our agencies of government, and it would be inappropriate for me to try to influence the decision with me rendering an opinion in public about what kind of force we should use.

McCain has pledged to prevent the re-appointment of Dempsey over what he deems is his reluctance to intervene militarily in Syria.

Last month, the US announced plans to ship arms to Syrian rebels, but the initiative has been temporarily paused over congressional questioning.

Meanwhile, a coalition of over six US anti-war groups, including US Labor Against the War and United For Peace and Justice, are calling for aid, not military intervention, in Syria. In a joint petition, these organizations declare:

You can’t put out a raging fire by pouring gasoline on one side of it. There is no military solution to the crisis in Syria, and more arms to any side mean more civilians will be killed.

...The situation in Syria today is full-scale civil war, which denies the people of Syria their right to choose their own government and leaders. Other governments arming and financing the two sides does not restore that right, it only makes things worse.

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