The White House has begun a full-court press on Congress to get approval for limited military action against Syria — amid signs that the issue is accentuating fissures in both political parties. Over the next week divisions that were in a kind of political suspended animation between the Democrats and Republicans will be on full display. Before the meeting, Obama underscored that his request is not to get into a long war:
Working to persuade Congress to support a U.S. attack on Syria, President Barack Obama vowed Tuesday that the military plan would deliver important results while keeping the United States out of a larger war.
“This is not Iraq, and this is not Afghanistan,” Obama told reporters before a meeting with lawmakers.
“This is a limited, proportional step that will send a clear message — not only to the Assad regime, but also to other countries that may be interested in testing some of these international norms — that there are consequences.”
The United States, along with NATO and several other countries, blames Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime for a chemical weapons attack that’s believed to have killed more than 1,000 people — including, Obama said Tuesday, more than 400 children.
“This norm against using chemical weapons — that 98 percent of the world agrees to — is there for a reason, because we recognize that there are certain weapons that, when used, can not only end up resulting in grotesque deaths, but also can end up being transmitted to non-state actors, can pose a risk to allies and friends of ours like Israel, like Jordan, like Turkey,” Obama said.
Failing to hold Syria accountable would send “a message that international norms around issues like nuclear proliferation don’t mean much,” he added.
The White House is making the hard sell for a strike on Syria — meeting with strategically important Republicans, trying to persuade skeptical Democrats and sending top members of the Cabinet to testify before Congress.
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden huddled with the heads of key congressional committees Tuesday in the White House Cabinet Room. House Speaker John Boehner, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell were among those at the meeting.
In brief remarks to reporters, Obama stressed that American action would be limited and meant to “degrade” the capability of Syrian leader Bashar Assad, suspected of using chemical weapons against his own people last month.
The White House is making the hard sell for a strike on Syria — meeting with strategically important Republicans, trying to persuade skeptical Democrats and sending top members of the Cabinet to testify before Congress.
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden huddled with the heads of key congressional committees Tuesday in the White House Cabinet Room. House Speaker John Boehner, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell were among those at the meeting.
In brief remarks to reporters, Obama stressed that American action would be limited and meant to “degrade” the capability of Syrian leader Bashar Assad, suspected of using chemical weapons against his own people last month.
And events are moving swiftly. NBC also gives us this update:
— Secretary of State John Kerry, who twice last week made a forceful moral argument for an attack on Syria, and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel were due in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
— Israel test-fired a missile over the Mediterranean Sea, adding to tension in the region. U.S. military officials told NBC News that no American ships took part in the test, and called the test fairly routine.
— The United Nations said that more than 2 million Syrians have poured into neighboring countries, about 5,000 per day. A U.N. commissioner said Syria had become “the great tragedy of this century.”
— U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was to meet with reporters early Tuesday afternoon.
— A spokesman for the Syrian opposition said that a Syrian forensic medicine expert has evidence of Assad’s involvement in a chemical weapons attack in March and has defected to Turkey.
Meanwhile, there are increasing signs Republicans will make their decision — get ready for the surprise — all about Obama.
So can you guess how this is likely to end?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.