Remarks this week by U.S. President Barack Obama may have indicated a hardening of his administration's posture against Syrian President Bashar Assad and Syria's ongoing violent crackdown on anti-government protesters.
But questions remain over what the United States can do to rein in Assad while supporting the Syrian protesters.
"The Americans' options are extremely limited," says Richard Gowan, a World Politics Review contributor and associate director of NYU's Center on International Cooperation.