Many nations in the Middle East are already facing political unrest, with anti-American sentiment running high. A U.S. strike before U.N. inspectors have determined who carried out the chemical attack could spark more anti-American feeling.

Also, some of the evidence being cited against the Syrian government is reportedly coming from Israel and that only heightens doubt in a region deeply suspicious of America's ally.

"In the U.S. you have a problem with your political credibility in dealing with Arab countries," said Mustafa Labbad, the director of the Al-Sharq Center for Regional and Strategic Studies in Cairo. "Iraq was accused of having weapons of mass destruction and, after the invasion, all the world saw it was a lie."

He says people across the region could take to the streets over what they see as hypocrisy.

"There is no evidence that Syria used chemical weapons. That Bashar al-Assad is a dictator? He is. But other U.S. allies are also as well dictators," he said.

Labbad says there is one saving grace to reported U.S. plans to use military strikes - that they're apparently not aimed at toppling Assad. He says the alternative - the possibility of anarchy or of jihadi successors, and an even more Syrian refugees, has many in the already unstable region alarmed.