"Don't hit them, they're dying anyway," Rice says
According to Newsweek, the Bush administration recently contemplated attacking Syria, but the Syrians were saved, at least for the moment, by Condoleezza Rice.
While U.S. officials stop short of accusing [Syrian President Bashar] al-Assad of actively aiding the insurgency, they say he has permitted jihadist transit and training camps to exist in the open. After the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, warned last month that "time is running out on Damascus," U.S. officials even debated launching military strikes inside the Syrian border against the insurgency. But at an Oct. 1 "principals" meeting, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice successfully opposed such a move, according to two U.S. government sources who are not authorized to speak on the record. Rice argued that diplomatic isolation is working against al-Assad, especially on the eve of a U.N. report that may blame Syria for the murder of Lebanese politician Rafik Hariri.
I had investigated the possibility of an American attack on Syria back in August.