Whatever the game is here, it's not just (or at all) about poison gas

John Kerry is blowing it on Syria - Salon.com

To be fair to Kerry, the policy he is peddling is so exquisitely poised as to be untenable: a military strike that’s effective enough to deter Assad from using chemical weapons again, but not enough to tip the balance of power to the rebels. It’s the military equivalent of a unicorn, and nobody seems to believe in it.