As the Obama administration continues its “flood the zone” campaign to win congressional support for military force against Syria, a statement by the president Tuesday indicates its plan is to go beyond punitive strikes against Assad and to pursue a “broader strategy.”
Although, as McClatchy reports, the administration’s case to use force against Syria “is riddled with inconsistencies and hinges mainly on circumstantial evidence,” Obama signaled he was confident his request for authorization to use force would win votes from Congress next week.
Speaking to congressional leaders at the White House on Tuesday, President Obama outlined the broader strategy, saying:
Republican Senators John McCain (Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.), who have pushed for an aggressive attack on Syria, left a Labor Day meeting with Obama “encouraged the administration appeared to be developing a plan for Syria that would degrade the military capabilities of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime while improving the capabilities of rebel forces,” The Hill reports.
And on Tuesday, “the House leadership on both sides has publicly positioned itself behind the president,” the Guardian notes in its Syria live blog. House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi was among those offering support for this “broader strategy,” though she also said that congressional support wasn’t really necessary:
However, whether or not Obama gets this congressional authorization, if he goes forward without approval from the United Nations, it would be a war crime, Noam Chomsky told the Huffington Post.
Further, the implications of the authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) could be far-reaching, as Jim White writes at emptywheel:
Click Here: cheap Cowboys jersey
Amidst the sound of the drums for war, the U.N. stated on Tuesday that ongoing violence has created two million Syrian refugees and over four million internally displaced people, and warned there was no end in sight to the “humanitarian calamity.”
__________________________