31.08 Obama Seeks Approval From Congress for Syria Attack
WASHINGTON, August 31 (RIA Novosti) US President Barack Obama on Saturday said that while he is prepared to launch a military strike against the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, he will first seek authorization to use military force from the US Congress.
I will seek authorization for the use of source from the American peoples representatives in Congress, Obama said.
Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, Obama added: While I believe I have the authority to carry out this military action without specific congressional authorization, I know that the country will be stronger if we take this course and our actions will be more effective.
We should have this debate, he said.
The US Congress is away on a summer break scheduled to last until Sept. 9. Obama said that lawmakers should debate and vote on military action when they return.
"Over the last several days, we have heard from members of Congress who want their voices to be heard," Obama said. "I absolutely agree."
Obama made it clear once again that he believes the US military should take action against the Assad regime to punish the Syrian government for last weeks apparent chemical weapons attack an attack Washington asserts was perpetrated by Syrian government forces and that it says killed 1,429 people, including 426 children.
I have decided that the United States should take military action against Syrian regime targets ... Im confident we can hold the Assad regime accountable for their use of chemical weapons, deter this kind of behavior and degrade their capacity to carry it out, Obama said.
Obama also said the US is ready to strike at any time. Our capacity to execute this mission is not time sensitive, it will be effective tomorrow or next week or one month from now and I am prepared to give that order.
Obama said any military action would not be open-ended and repeated earlier assurances that we would not put boots on the ground, that is, deploy US ground forces in Syria.
On Friday the White House released a declassified intelligence assessment of the apparent Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburbs, which the administration asserted with high confidence was carried out by the Assad regime.
The report said its assessment was made based on human, signals and geospatial intelligence, as well as open source materials such as social media reports and videos of the alleged attack that have flooded the Internet over the past week.
