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Tulsa man says his brother in Syria narrowly missed being a victim of chemical attack

Tulsa businessman Steve Chammat says his brother lives in a neighborhood next to where the Syrian government may have launched a chemical weapon attack next month.

Chammat tells KRMG he has no doubt at all that it happened after speaking with his brother.

"He just could not breathe. He went home, and he was devastated. They had to close the door, they had to turn the air conditioner on and pour water on themselves because they can't (sic) breathe."

And while he dismisses the notion that the rebels themselves may have staged the attack, he doesn't blame Syrian President Bashar Assad directly, instead pointing the finger at those around him.

KRMG asked if he thought the U.S. should launch a strike on Syria.

"If it's going to end the civil war, if it's going to bring the two million refugees back home, if it's going to end the regime, yes, I'm for it," he replied. "Otherwise, I'm not."

And he doesn't believe missile strikes will accomplish any of those goals.

"If they're just going to strike and leave, it's not gonna help. We need this civil war to end, period. Enough is enough."

A limited U.S. response will only "create more bloodshed, more war. They're going to destroy the country -- no, I'm not for it."

He says the situation's very complicated, and very different from what happened in Libya, for example.

"They (the Syrian government) have a lot of support from around Syria. Hezbollah, Iran, Iraq now, Russia, China... Libya didn't have nobody. Everybody turned against them, period. But Syria is a different story."

He says in his opinion, only a major military commitment on the part of the U.S. can topple the regime and end the war.

He doesn't see that happening.

"They're capable of just going in and finishing it, but they don't want to do it. I don't know why."

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