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"Syria will probably put up a better defense than Iraq. It was fairly obvious that we would win in Iraq and that the challenges would come later (e.g. preventing civil war, etc). With Syria the challenges could come up front"

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A better defense to WHAT???

Even if the US did go after Syria, (which I doubt very strongly) Syria would be fighting the last war, and we would do something totally different. Iraq, in spite of watching the build up in plain site in Kuaite, sat there expecting either another special forces war, or a rerun of Afganistan. Neither happened, instead they got Blitzkreig
and "WW2-style Island-hopping".

So any defense Syria would launch would be out maneauvered by a totally different war style.

Their situation is extremely hopeless, and they know it. They have Turkey (no friend) to the north, and the US army to the East, and the US Navy to the West and Isreal to the south.

I predict their response over the next few weeks to be a typical Arab "waving of swords and loud snareling" but with plenty of back-channel assurances to the US that no action is necessary, and please please leave us alone.

As soon as there is any "HINT" of progress on the Palistinian issue they will even kick out Hesbola and all the other terrorist organizations. You watch and see.

We are better off telling Syria what we expect privately and making sure they do it. And we can start with getting the terrorists out of Lebanon.

So any defense Syria would launch would be out maneauvered by a totally different war style.

They don't have to "launch" a defense, just defend their airspace. How many cruise missiles do we have left?