military assistance

http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-the-us-intervene-in-syria-with-military-action/a-syrian-intervention-need-not-be-military-focused

I found this article to be very interesting. The author of the article states his claim on how the United States should continue to influence Syria, and it's surrounding countries to help stop the violence there. I found his one quote very appealing, "a made in America military intervention would......remake the mistakes the Bush Administration made in Iraq." The article quietly takes jabs and both the Obama and Bush administration questioning their decisions during the interventions.

His opinion is for the United States to work with Syria's allie countries, specifically Turkey, to seek further assistance from them. He insist that the United States to try and use its leverage with Turkey, and Iraq to get their higher powers to provide assistance in getting Syria assistance and to isolate the Assad regime.

We should remain active in this issue, but he questions our military assistance. I'm curious to what kind of influence we can provide without military powers. Would our influence be as strong or as affective with just verbal actions? Obviously war and violence is not the best option for situations, but certain instances it is needed.