Another name that is often associated with the hawkish wing of the Administration driving Syria policy is Samantha Powers, followed by recently departed Anne-Marie Slaughter, director of policy planning at the State Department from 2009 to 2011.
While most of the name principals have been retired, there are numerous key staffers in the NSC, at the State Dept., in the agencies, and on Congressional committees who have been carrying this torch for what has become known as the PNAC Agenda.
Susan Rice's statements and agitation for a Security Council Resolution justifying "humanitarian intervention" in Syria, following the initial successful push for regime change in Libya, are well-documented.
Outside of the Administration, it's largely the same fish, large and small, that urged the invasion of Iraq a decade ago, As David Corn points out: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/08/neocons-push-obama-go-beyond-punitive-strike-syria
On Wednesday, the Foreign Policy Initiative—which was started by Bill Kristol, Dan Senor, Robert Kagan, and other hawkish-minded policy wonks—sent a letter to Obama, urging him to slam Assad in response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria: "At a minimum, the United States, along with willing allies and partners, should use standoff weapons and airpower to target the Syrian dictatorship’s military units that were involved in the recent large-scale use of chemical weapons."
But the letter—which was signed by Elliott Abrams, Fouad Ajami, Max Boot, Ellen Bork, Eliot Cohen, Douglas Feith, Joseph Lieberman, Clifford May, Joshua Muravchik, Danielle Pletka, Karl Rove, Randy Scheunemann, Kristol, Kagan, Senor, and dozens of others—demands that Obama go further. It calls on the president to provide "vetted moderate elements of Syria's armed opposition" with the military support necessary to strike regime units armed with chemical weapons. That is, the neocons and their allies have CW-ized their pre-existing demand for the United States to arm the rebels.
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