President Barack Obama says he will seek congressional authorization for the use of force in Syria. He says congressional leadership plans to hold a debate and a vote as soon as Congress comes back in September.
Obama says , after careful deliberation, he decided the United States should take military action against Syrian regime targets. The mission would not be an open-ended operation and would not put “boots on the ground,” according to the president. The president made his announcement one day after Secretary of State John Kerry made an emotional plea about world’s most heinous weapons — chemical weapons.
Obama also said he will seek approval from Congress. A debate and vote will be determined as soon as Congress comes in to session. Congress doesn’t return until September 9, 2013. Public opinion seems to be wavering. Critics believe any brief will be ineffective. Critics also ask what the difference is between chemical weapons, and other means that have already killed thousands in Syria already, or in the Congo where over 5 million people have been killed.
Outside the White House, some protestors were against action against the Syrian regime, and some protestors were for action to help rebels “free Syria.”
Fouad Ajami tells CNN’s Don Lemon why he thinks Obama’s decision on Syria was a bad one. Fouad Ajami is a Lebanese-born American university professor and writer on Middle Eastern issues, who was an outspoken support of the Iraq War.
Fouad Ajami believes there is a direct connection between what happened in Iraq in 2003 and what’s happening today throughout the rest of the Arab world — specifically Egypt and Tunisia.
CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh reports on how the U.S. has no good options regarding Syria.
Critics of a limited attack worry that chemical weapons could be transferred to Hezbollah — a terrorist Shi’a Islamic militant group and political party based in Lebanon. Hezbollah has taken the side of the government in the Syrian civil war and in May through June 2013 successfully with the recapture of the strategic town of Qusayr, Syria — just east of Lebanon.
Qusayr is crucial to supply routes for the Syrian government and rebels.
CNN’s Frederik Pleitgen looks at Syria’s response to a possible military strike by the U.S.
Major General James “Spider” Marks explains the cost of open discussions and Obama’s delayed action against Syria, which is giving al-Assad’s regime more time to prepare.
The alleged chemical attacks occurred on Wednesday, August 21, 2013 in the Ghouta region of the Rif Dimashq Governorate of Syria — about 70 miles south of Qusayr, just east of Damascus. The chemical weapons attacks occurred only a few kilometers from the location of United Nations investigators. The UN investigators, also under sniper attack, departed for Lebanon on August 31, 2013.
President warns Bashar al-Assad that the use of chemical or biological weapons in Syria or chemical weapons being moved around is a “red line” that should not be crossed.
U.S. President Barack Obama’s “red line” speech, in which he warned that chemical weapons use in Syria, which is one of five non-signatories to the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, would trigger American intervention.
Iran and Russia, Syria’s strongest international allies, have urged against foreign military intervention in Syria. .
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