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| In this image from video U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks from the State Department in Washington Sunday, Sept. 1, 2013, making a case for U.S. intervention in Syria. Kerry appeared at State in a series of interviews on Sunday news shows to say that the case for intervention in Syria's 2 1/2-year civil war was strengthening each day and that he expected American lawmakers to recognize the need for action when the "credibility of the United States is on the line." He said President Barack Obama has the authority to launch retaliatory strikes with or without Congress' approval, but Kerry stopped short of saying the president would do so if the House or Senate withholds support. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- The Obama administration geared up for the biggest foreign
policy vote since the Iraq war by arguing Sunday that new physical
evidence shows the Syrian government used sarin gas in a deadly August
attack. With its credibility on the line, the United States must
respond, the country's top diplomat said.
Members
of Congress, deadlocked on just about everything these days and still
on summer break, expressed sharply divergent opinions about whether to
give President Barack Obama the go-ahead he requested to retaliate with
military force against the Assad regime, and what turning down the
commander in chief could mean for America's reputation.
Presenting
Obama's case for military action, Secretary of State John Kerry gave a
series of interviews on Sunday news shows outlining the latest
information the administration has received about the Aug. 21 attack in
the Damascus suburbs that the U.S. says killed 1,429 civilians,
including more than 400 children. He said samples collected by first
responders added to the growing body of proof that Syria's government
launched a chemical weapons attack.
"Samples
of hair and blood have been tested and they have reported positive for
signatures of sarin," Kerry said. "Each day that goes by, this case is
even stronger. We know that the regime ordered this attack. We know they
prepared for it. We know where the rockets came from. We know where
they landed. We know the damage that was done afterwards."
Sarin,
which affects the nervous system and is toxic in liquid or gas form,
can be delivered in missiles, bombs, rockets or artillery shells. The
gas is outlawed under international rules of warfare. The reference to
hair and blood samples were the first pieces of specific physiological
evidence cited by any member of the administration, which previously
spoke only about an unnamed nerve agent.
Kerry's
assertion coincided with the beginning of a forceful administration
appeal for congressional support, now that Obama has declared he will
await approval from the House and Senate before ordering any cruise
missile strikes or other action.
On Capitol
Hill, senior administration officials briefed lawmakers in private to
explain why the U.S. is compelled to act against President Bashar
Assad's government. Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and White House
Chief of Staff Denis McDonough also made calls to individual lawmakers.
Further classified meetings were planned over the next three days.
Sen.
John McCain of Arizona, a leading Senate hawk and the candidate Obama
defeated for the presidency in 2008, said he'd discuss Syria with the
president at the White House Monday.
Obama
must convince skeptical Americans and their representatives in Congress
of the need for more U.S. military action in the Muslim world after a
decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He also
is trying to assemble an international coalition, but finding it hard
to land partners. They fear becoming involved in a conflict that has
claimed more than 100,000 lives in the past 2 1/2 years and dragged in
terrorist groups on both sides of the battlefield.
Only
France is firmly on board among the major military powers. Britain's
Parliament rejected the use of force in a vote last week.
The
United Nations on Sunday asked the head of its chemical weapons
inspection team to expedite the analysis of tests from samples it
collected from Syria last week.
Assad's
government, which has denied allegations of chemical weapons use,
reveled in Obama's decision to defer any immediate action. Deputy
Foreign Minister Faysal Mikdad claimed that the move reflected the lack
of evidence of government culpability.
With
Navy ships on standby in the eastern Mediterranean sea ready to launch
missiles, Congress began a series of meetings that will take place over
the next several days in preparation for a vote once lawmakers return
from summer break, which is scheduled to end Sept. 9.
Dozens
of members attended the two-hour classified briefing Sunday in the
Capitol, though many emerged saying they needed to see more details of
Obama's plan and more facts about the alleged chemical weapons attack.
Many feared giving Obama overly broad authority for military action.
On
selling the strategy to Congress, Rep. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, the
senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said, "They
have a ways to go."
"They also have work to do with respect to shoring up the facts of what happened," Thompson said.
The
Senate Foreign Relations Committee plans a meeting Tuesday, according
to its chairman, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. The Senate Armed Service
Committee will gather a day later, said Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, the
top Republican on the panel.
Kerry confidently predicted that lawmakers would back limited military strikes.
"The stakes are just really too high here," he said.
Kerry
was asked repeatedly in the broadcast interviews what Obama would do if
Congress didn't give its consent. He said he believed lawmakers would
recognize the grave implications for letting a chemical weapons attack
go unchecked and what that might mean for U.S. efforts to force North
Korea to get rid of its nuclear weapons and prevent Iran from acquiring
such capability.
"We are not going to lose this vote," Kerry said. "The credibility of the United States is on the line."
Obama
is likely to find stronger support in the Democrat-controlled Senate
than the GOP-dominated House, yet faces complicated battles in each.
Some anti-war Democrats and many tea party-backed Republicans are
opposed to any intervention at all, while hawks in both parties, such as
McCain, feel the president must do far more to help Syria's rebels oust
Assad from power.
"It can't just be, in my view, pinprick cruise missiles," McCain told CBS' "Face the Nation."
In
an interview with an Israeli television network, McCain said Obama has
"encouraged our enemies" by effectively punting his decision to
Congress. He and fellow Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina
have threatened to vote against Obama's authorization if it is too
limited.
On the other end of the spectrum, an
unusual coalition of foreign policy isolationists, fiscal conservatives
and anti-interventionists in both parties opposes even limited action
for fear that might draw the United States into another costly and even
bloody confrontation.
The White House request
to Congress late Saturday speaks only of force to "deter, disrupt,
prevent and degrade" the Assad regime's ability to use chemical weapons.
"I think it's a mistake to get involved in the Syrian civil war," said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
Echoing
that sentiment, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., questioned, "Does a U.S.
attack make the situation better for the Syrian people or worse?"
Paul
expected the Senate to "rubber-stamp" Obama's plan, while he said it
was "at least 50/50 whether the House will vote down involvement in the
Syrian war." Inhofe predicted defeat for the president.
Despite
the intense gridlock in Congress over debt reduction, health care,
immigration and other issues, some lawmakers were more optimistic about
the chances of consensus when it came to a question of national
security.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who
criticized Obama for not proceeding immediately against Assad, said he'd
vote "yes" and believed the president should be able to build a House
majority over the next several days.
"At the
end of the day, Congress will rise to the occasion," added Rep. Mike
Rogers, R-Mich. "This isn't about Barack Obama versus the Congress. This
isn't about Republicans versus Democrats. This has a very important
worldwide reach."
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said
Congress and the American people would support action once Obama
finishes making his case. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., said if Obama
doesn't do that, he won't get his authorization.
"He's
got to come out and really be in-depth with respect to the intelligence
that we know is out there," said Chambliss, the top Republican on the
Senate Intelligence Committee. "He's got to be in-depth with respect to
what type of military action is going to be taken and what is our
current strategy."
At the Capitol, Sen. Jeff
Sessions, R-Ala., said Obama's proposed resolution needed tightening. "I
don't think Congress is going to accept it as it is," he said.
In his TV interviews, Kerry reiterated Obama's oft-repeated promise not to send any American troops into Syrian territory.
Polls
show significant opposition among Americans to involvement, and several
lawmakers have cited the faulty intelligence about weapons of mass
destruction that led up to President George W. Bush's 2003 Iraq invasion
as justification of the need for lengthy debate before U.S. military
action.
Kerry, who voted to authorize Bush's
2003 Iraq invasion but then opposed it in his unsuccessful presidential
bid a year later, rejected any comparisons to America's recent wars.
"This
is not Iraq. This is not Afghanistan. There is nothing similar in what
the president is contemplating,"
Kerry said. "There are others who are
willing to fight, others who are engaged. And the issue here is not
whether we will go and do it with them, it's whether we will support
them adequately in their efforts to do it."
Kerry
appeared on CBS, NBC's "Meet the Press," CNN's "State of the Union,"
"Fox News Sunday" and ABC's "This Week." Paul was on NBC, Rogers and
Murphy were on CNN, King and Inhofe were on Fox, and Chambliss and Kaine
were on CBS.
