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WASHINGTON
(AP) - Short on support at home and allies abroad, President Barack
Obama unexpectedly stepped back from a missile attack against Syria on
Saturday and instead asked Congress to support a strike punishing Bashar
Assad's regime for the ...
Obama to seek congressional OK for Syria action
WASHINGTON (AP) — Short on support
at home and allies abroad, President Barack Obama unexpectedly stepped
back from a missile attack against Syria on Saturday and instead asked
Congress to support a strike punishing Bashar Assad’s regime for the
alleged use of chemical weapons.
With Navy ships on standby in the
Mediterranean Sea ready to launch their cruise missiles, Obama said he
had decided the United States should take military action and that he
believes that as commander in chief, he has ‘‘the authority to carry out
this military action without specific congressional authorization.’’
At the same time, he said, ‘‘I
know that the country will be stronger if we take this course and our
actions will be even more effective.’’ His remarks were televised live
in the United States as well as on Syrian state television with
translation.
Congress is scheduled to return
from a summer vacation on Sept. 9, and in anticipation of the coming
debate, Obama challenged lawmakers to consider ‘‘what message will we
send if a dictator can gas hundreds of children to death in plain sight
and pay no price.’’
The president didn’t say so, but
his strategy carries enormous risks to his and the nation’s credibility,
which the administration has argued forcefully is on the line in Syria.
Obama long ago said the use of chemical weapons was a ‘‘red line’’ that
Assad would not be allowed to cross with impunity.
Nor would the White House say what
options would still be open to the president if he fails to win the
backing of the House and Senate for the military measures he has
threatened.
Only this week, British Prime
Minister David Cameron suffered a humiliating defeat when the House of
Commons refused to support his call for military action against Syria.
Halfway around the world, Syrians
awoke Saturday to state television broadcasts of tanks, planes and other
weapons of war, and troops training, all to a soundtrack of martial
music. Assad’s government blames rebels in the Aug. 21 attack, and has
threatened retaliation if it is attacked.
Russian President Vladimir Putin,
saying he was appealing to a Nobel Peace laureate rather than to a
president, urged Obama to reconsider. A group that monitors casualties
in the long Syrian civil war challenged the United States to
substantiate its claim that 1,429 died in a chemical weapons attack,
including more than 400 children.
By accident or design, the new
timetable gives time for U.N. inspectors to receive lab results from the
samples they took during four days in Damascus, and to compile a final
report. After leaving Syria overnight, the inspection team arrived in
Rotterdam a few hours before Obama spoke.
The group’s leader was expected to brief Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday.
Administration officials said
Obama appeared set on ordering a strike until Friday evening. After a
long walk in near 90-degree temperatures around the White House grounds
with Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, the president told his aide he had
changed his mind.
These officials said Obama
initially drew pushback in a two-hour session attended by Vice President
Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Director of National
Intelligence James Klapper, CIA Director John Brennan, national security
adviser Susan Rice and homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco. They
declined to say which of the participants had argued against Obama’s
proposal.
Whatever Congress ultimately decides, the developments marked a stunning turn.
France is Obama’s only major
foreign ally to date for a strike, public polling shows support is
lukewarm in the United States, and dozens of lawmakers in both parties
have signed a letter urging Obama not to act without their backing.
Outside the gates of the White House, the chants of protesters could be
heard as the president stepped to a podium set up in the Rose Garden.
Had he gone ahead with a military
strike, Obama would have become the first U.S. leader in three decades
to attack a foreign nation without mustering broad international support
or acting in direct defense of Americans. Not since 1983, when
President Ronald Reagan ordered an invasion of the Caribbean island of
Grenada, has the U.S. been so alone in pursuing major lethal military
action beyond a few attacks responding to strikes or threats against its
citizens.
Republicans generally expressed
satisfaction at Obama’s decision to seek congressional support, and
challenged him to make his case to the public and lawmakers alike that
American power should be used to punish Assad.
‘‘We are glad the president is
seeking authorization for any military action in Syria in response to
serious, substantive questions being raised,’’ House Speaker John
Boehner of Ohio and other House Republican leaders said in a joint
statement.
‘‘In consultation with the
president, we expect the House to consider a measure the week of
September 9th. This provides the president time to make his case to
Congress and the American people.’’
New York Republican Rep. Peter
King was among the dissenters, strongly so. ‘‘President Obama is
abdicating his responsibility as commander in chief and undermining the
authority of future presidents,’’ he said. ‘‘The president doesn’t need
535 members of Congress to enforce his own red line.’’
For now, it appeared that the administration’s effort at persuasion was already well underway.
The administration plunged into a
series of weekend briefings for lawmakers, both classified and
unclassified, and Obama challenged lawmakers to consider ‘‘what message
will we send to a dictator’’ if he is allowed to kill hundreds of
children with chemical weapons without suffering any retaliation.
At the same time, a senior State
Department official said Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with Syrian
Opposition Coalition President Ahmed Assi al-Jarba to underscore
Obama’s commitment to holding the Assad government accountable for the
Aug. 21 attack.
Obama said Friday he was
considering ‘‘limited and narrow’’ steps to punish Assad, adding that
U.S. national security interests were at stake. He pledged no U.S.
combat troops on the ground in Syria, where a civil war has claimed more
than 100,000 civilian lives.
In Syria, some rebels expressed
unhappiness with the president, one rebel commander said he did not
consider Obama’s decision to be a retreat. ‘‘On the contrary, he will
get the approval for congress and then the military action will have
additional credibility,’’ said Qassem Saadeddine.
‘‘Just because the strike was delayed by few days doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen,’’ he said.
With Obama struggling to gain
international backing for a strike, Putin urged him to reconsider his
plans. ‘‘We have to remember what has happened in the last decades, how
many times the United States has been the initiator of armed conflict in
different regions of the world, said Putin, a strong Assad ally. ‘‘Did
this resolve even one problem?’’
Even the administration’s casualty estimate was grist for controversy.
The Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights, an organization that monitors casualties in the country, said it
has confirmed 502 deaths, nearly 1,000 fewer than the American
intelligence assessment claimed.
Rami Abdel-Rahman, the head of the
organization, said he was not contacted by U.S. officials about his
efforts to collect information about the death toll in the Aug. 21
attacks.
‘‘America works only with one part
of the opposition that is deep in propaganda,’’ he said, and urged the
Obama administration to release the information its estimate is based
on.
___
Associated Press writers Julie Pace, Josh
Lederman, Matthew Lee and Kimberly Dozier in Washington; Zeina Karam,
Yasmine Saker and Karin Laub in Beirut; and Geir Mouslon in Berlin
contributed to this report.
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