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Bill Kristol, Leon Wieseltier urge Syria action

Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, New Republic literary editor Leon Wieseltier and more than 60 other journalists, political operatives and foreign policy experts have signed an open letter calling on President Barack Obama to bomb the Syrian military units responsible for the recent chemical weapons attacks.

"At a minimum, the United States, along with willing allies and partners, should use standoff weapons and airpower to target the Syrian dictatorship’s military units that were involved in the recent large-scale use of chemical weapons," the group states. "It should also provide vetted moderate elements of Syria’s armed opposition with the military support required to identify and strike regime units armed with chemical weapons."

The co-signers also urge the United States and other willing nations to "consider direct military strikes against the pillars of the Assad regime" and to "accelerate efforts to vet, train, and arm moderate elements of Syria’s armed opposition, with the goal of empowering them to prevail against both the Assad regime and the growing presence of Al Qaeda-affiliated and other extremist rebel factions in the country."

Co-signers of the letter include Karl Rove, former Sen. Joe Lieberman, diplomat Elliott Abrams and French intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy, and several members of leading foreign policy think tanks, including the Council on Foreign Relations.

Among the media types to sign the letter are James Traub, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, and Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and contributing editor to the Weekly Standard and the Los Angeles Times. At The New Republic alone, Wieseltier is joined by former publisher and editor Martin Peretz and contributing editor Paul Berman.

A note to younger readers: Those of you who associate The New Republic with new owner/editor Chris Hughes will be surprised to find TNR types standing side by side with Rove, Kristol and other Weekly Standard types. But Wieseltier et al. aren't emissaries from the 'new' New Republic, they're stalwarts of the Old Republic. Wieseltier served on the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq and Peretz led the magazine's call for military intervention there (he still thinks it was a good idea). Berman is a little different: He was pro-war, but against the Bush administration's way of going about it.

One other note: The Kristol-Wieseltier letter is by no means the most aggressive stance on Syria. Over at The Wall Street Journal, Bret Stephens is arguing for a full-scale attack on Assad and practically everyone he knows. Also, those looking for a simplified, synthesized, Socratic rendering of the current Syria debate should read George Packer's new piece.