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| President Barack Obama gestures as he answers questions during a joint news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2013, at the Rosenbad Building in Stockholm, Sweden. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- President Barack Obama's request for speedy congressional
backing of a military strike in Syria advanced Wednesday toward a
showdown Senate vote, while the commander in chief left open the
possibility he would order retaliation for a deadly chemical weapons
attack even if Congress withheld its approval.
Legislation
backing the use of force against President Bashar Assad's government
cleared the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on a 10-7 vote after it
was stiffened at the last minute to include a pledge of support for
"decisive changes to the present military balance of power" in Syria's
civil war. It also would rule out U.S. combat operations on the ground.
The
measure is expected to reach the Senate floor next week, although the
timing for a vote is uncertain. Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky conservative
with strong tea party ties, has threatened a filibuster.
The
House also is reviewing Obama's request, but its timetable is even less
certain and the measure could face a rockier time there.
The
administration blames Assad for a chemical weapons attack that took
place on Aug. 21 and says more than 1,400 civilians died, including at
least 400 children. Other casualty estimates are lower, and the Syrian
government denies responsibility, contending rebels fighting to topple
the government were to blame.
The Senate
panel's vote marked the first formal response in Congress, four days
after Obama unexpectedly put off an anticipated cruise missile strike
against Syria last weekend and instead asked lawmakers to unite first
behind such a plan.
In Stockholm, Sweden,
where Obama was traveling on Wednesday, the White House praised the
vote, and said it would continue to seek support for "a military
response that is narrowly tailored to enforce the prohibition on the use
of chemical weapons, and sufficient to protect the national security
interests of the United States of America."
Earlier,
at a news conference Obama said, "I always preserve the right and
responsibility to act on behalf of America's national security." In a
challenge to lawmakers back home, he said Congress' credibility was on
the line, not his own, despite saying a year ago that the use of
chemical weapons would cross a "red line."
Secretary
of State John Kerry said he believes Obama will address the nation on
Syria in the next few days.
The president returns home from overseas
Friday night.
Obama's request also received
its first hearing in the House during the day, and Kerry responded
heatedly when Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., said that the secretary of
state, Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden all had advocated for
caution in past conflicts. "Is the power of the executive branch so
intoxicating that you have abandoned past caution in favor of pulling
the trigger on a military response so quickly?" Duncan asked.
Kerry,
who fought in Vietnam in the 1960s and voted to authorize the war
against Iraq a decade ago, shot back angrily: "I volunteered to fight
for my country, and that wasn't a cautious thing to do when I did it."
When Duncan interrupted, the secretary of state said," I'm going to
finish, congressman," and cited his support as senator for past U.S.
military action in Panama and elsewhere.
The
Senate committee's vote capped a hectic few days in which lawmakers
first narrowed the scope of Obama's request - limiting it to 90 days
and banning combat operations on the ground - and then widened it.
Sen.
John McCain, R-Ariz., a proponent of aggressive U.S. military action in
Syria, joined forces with Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware to
add a provision calling for "decisive changes to the present military
balance of power on the ground in Syria."
At
their urging, the measure was also changed to state that the policy of
the United States is "to change the momentum on the battlefield in Syria
so as to create favorable conditions for a negotiated settlement that
ends the conflict and leads to a democratic government in Syria."
McCain, who has long accused Obama of timidity in Syria, argued that
Assad will be willing to participate in diplomatic negotiations only if
he believes he is going to lose the civil war he has been fighting for
over two years.
The changes were enough to
attract bipartisan support, but political fault lines were clear on a
military action that polls show a war-weary public opposes.
Seven
Democrats and three Republicans supported the measure, while two
Democrats and five Republicans opposed. Among Republicans, opposition
came from lawmakers with the closest ties to tea party activists,
including Paul and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, both presidential
aspirants.
Among Democrats, Kerry's replacement in the Senate, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., voted "present" after expressing misgivings.
In
his comments in Sweden, the president sought to shift the onus for
responding to Assad to Congress and the world at large. "I didn't set a
red line. The world set a red line" with a treaty banning the use of
chemical weapons. He added that "Congress set a red line" when it passed
legislation a decade ago demanding Syria stop production of weapons of
mass destruction.
His comments drew a disbelieving response from one Republican back home.
"He
needs to go back and read his quote," Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia
said, referring to a comment the president made slightly more than a
year ago. On Aug. 20, 2012, Obama said, "We have been very clear to the
Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line
for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving
around or being utilized. ... "That would change my calculus" about
military action, he added at the time.
Elsewhere on Wednesday:
-
In Syria, al-Qaida-linked rebels were said to have launched an assault
on a government-held Christian mountain village in the densely populated
western part of the country, and there was new fighting near Damascus
as well.
- In Rome, Pope Francis underscored
Vatican opposition to threatened military strikes against Syria, urging
Catholics and non-Catholics alike to take part in a day of fasting and
prayer for peace on Saturday.
- In France,
Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told parliament that failure to take
action would allow Assad to launch more chemical attacks.
By
his country's intelligence, the Syrian has an abundance of material.
Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., citing a French estimate, said at the
Senate meeting that Assad has an estimated 1,000 tons of chemical
weapons material and "may be in the chemical weapons world a
superpower."
Kerry said Assad had used
chemical weapons 11 times but until the most recent attack the president
did not have a "compelling" enough case to push for a U.S. military
response.
Few if any members of Congress
dispute the administration's claim that Assad was responsible for the
attack, and lawmakers in both parties appear far more focused on
determining how they should respond.
Gaveling
the House committee hearing to order, Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., said that
while it would be important to deter the use of chemical weapons by
Assad and others, there remained many unanswered questions, including
what the U.S. would do if Assad retaliated.
"The administration's Syria policy doesn't build confidence," he said.
In
a letter to her rank and file, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of
California said she had received suggestions for legislation in the
House "to add language to prevent boots on the ground, to tie the
authorization more closely to the use of chemical weapons and to address
concerns about an open-ended timetable."
