Oliver North: US Limited if Syria Confrontation Escalates

Retired Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North warns that the United States will suffer bad public relations without weakening the Syrian regime if it attacks without a follow-up plan.

"You're going to see mothers and daddies, and maybe regime officials, holding up dead babies – and blaming us for it," North said Tuesday on Fox News Channel's "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren."

And after that, Syria's means of delivering chemical and biological weapons will not have been degraded, North said.

"Here's the problem," North said. Syrian President Bashar Assad "has three means of doing it. He has air, he has artillery, and he's got Scud-type rockets and others."

White House officials are pushing Congress to approve a limited missile attack on military targets, but have not said what they will do if Syria or its ally Iran retaliate.

The United States has limited capabilities if the confrontation escalates, North said. "We now have more admirals than we have ships in the United States Navy."