http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-27/rebels-without-a-leader-show-limit-to-u-s-role-in-syria-war.html
http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2013/05/27/chemical-war-in-syria_3417708_3218.html
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/28/20232943-what-happens-after-a-strike-on-syria-it-depends-on-how-far-the-us-goes?lite?ocid=twitter
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/08/how-an-insular-beltway-elite-makes-wars-of-choice-more-likely/279116/
There is a lot of problems with a strike on Syria. First is whether Assad's troops actually committed the chemical weapons attack this time and in previous months. It wouldn't shock me if it was directly ordered but it is a possibility that some mid level general or lower decided to launch a chemical attack. I think it's more remote that rebels would do a false flag attack but it's possible, I can't deny that. Second is that strikes probably wouldn't change much. Lobbing a bunch of Tomahawks will destroy some material and could demoralize some of Assad's troops but it could just embolden them to fight even more viciously. A more robust operation with bombers would hurt Assad more but that entails a lot of risk because the strongest part of Assad's military is air defense, they have very sophisticated Russian built air defense systems so that could result in planes being shot down and airmen killed. The rebels are fractured politically and a decent percentage, which just happens to be the best fighters, are assorted nasty Islamist groups.
Syria is also much more densely populated compared to Libya where it was relatively easy to bomb targets without killing civilians. Of course Gaddafi had very few friends while Assad is backed by Iran, Russia and Hezbollah. I doubt Syria would directly attack Israel in retaliation but Hezbollah is a different story. I detest Assad but another Operation Desert Fox doesn't seem to me to be a good solution here. It's just a really sad situation but I don't think an intervention is going to do much unless you have many of those Arab countries fully buy in and make efforts to push the Islamist rebels to the sidelines while pounding Assad. I doubt that happens so I hope Obama doesn't strike.