Gen. Michael Hayden: Assad Army Weakened Just by US Threat of Action

While debate swirls in Washington over whether the United States should take limited military action against Syria, a former head of the CIA and NSA says that just the threat of action has already weakened the capabilities of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"He's dispersed his forces, he's camouflaged his forces, he's hidden his forces. That means he can't use his forces," Gen. Michael Hayden said Monday on CNN.

That said, the political fracturing that has evolved in the West while President Barack Obama has threatened action without actually taking any has weakened the impact of that threat, Hayden said.

"So if our purpose here is to show resolve, we can do it physically. I just don't know that the psychic effect now is going to be all that we wanted it to be," Hayden told CNN.

Assad and his Iranian and Hezbollah allies are going to want to show resolve, too, Hayden said. "So I would expect one of those actors, particularly the Iranians, engineering some sort of response. Once you start this, it's hard to control it."

Hayden said he supports taking action, but that the limited "one and done" firing of Tomahawk missiles into the area won't likely end U.S. involvement.

"Once you start using heat, blast and fragmentation to text messages to another leader things can get out of control," he said.

"Our strategic reach weapon is air power and those Tomahawk missiles with the fleet in the eastern Mediterranean," Hayden said. "Their strategic reach weapon is Hezbollah. And they could then use Hezbollah to attack Americans, American interests in the region, and perhaps as far as North America."