President Barack Obama has decided the U.S. should take military action against Syria, but that he will seek congressional authorization first, he said from the White House Rose Garden Saturday.
“After careful deliberation I have decided the United States should take military action against Syrian targets,” Obama said. “I’m confident we can hold the Assad regime accountable for their use of chemical weapons.”
The U.S. government says the Assad regime carried out a chemical weapons attack in the early morning hours of August 21 in the Damascus suburbs that killed over 1,400 people.
Obama struck an assertive tone to take military action, saying strikes would be “effective tomorrow or next week of one month from now” and that he is “prepared to give that order.”
However, Obama also said that he “will seek authorization for the use of force from the American people’s representatives in Congress.”
Congress, however, is scheduled to be on recess until Sept. 9.
Obama’s comments come just ahead of a weekend of classified and unclassified briefings on Capitol Hill provided by Obama’s national security team, including Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They will provide an unclassified briefing for Republican senators Saturday followed by a separate briefing for Democratic senators. House members will receive a classified briefing Sunday afternoon.
Obama echoed his position from Friday that the action would be limited in scope, reiterating, ”This would not be an open-ended intervention,” he said. “We would not put boots on the ground.” LINK
Posts
