LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
— Israel and the United States tested a new air-defense system Tuesday, launching a missile from deep in the Mediterranean Sea that caused consternation in Syria and Russia.
— The U.N. refugee agency said more than 2 million refugees have fled Syria’s violence in an exodus that shows no sign of letting up and could destabilize neighboring countries.
— Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said that France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and others in the region are key partners in any U.S. military action.
— French President Francois Hollande said he’s waiting for a decision from the U.S. Congress and insists France won’t strike against Bashar Assad’s regime alone.
— Secretary of State John Kerry and Hagel are scheduled to appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee today.
— News services
President Barack Obama gained ground Tuesday in his drive for congressional backing of a military strike against Syria, winning critical support from House Speaker John Boehner while administration officials agreed to explicitly rule out the use of U.S. combat troops in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack.
The leader of House Republicans, Boehner emerged from a meeting at the White House and said the United States has “enemies around the world that need to understand that we’re not going to tolerate this type of behavior. We also have allies around the world and allies in the region who also need to know that America will be there and stand up when it’s necessary.”
Boehner spoke as lawmakers in both parties called for changes in the president’s requested legislation, rewriting it to restrict the type and duration of any military action that would be authorized, possibly including a ban on U.S. combat forces on the ground.
“There’s no problem in our having the language that has zero capacity for American troops on the ground,” said Secretary of State John Kerry, who sat shoulder to shoulder with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to make the case for military intervention at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
“President Obama is not asking America to go to war,” Kerry said in a strongly worded opening statement. He added, “This is not the time for armchair isolationism. This is not the time to be spectators to slaughter.”
Obama said earlier in the day he was open to revisions in the relatively broad request the White House made over the weekend. He expressed confidence Congress would respond to his call for support and said Assad’s action “poses a serious national security threat to the United States and to the region.”
The administration says 1,429 died from the attack on Aug. 21 in a Damascus suburb. Casualty estimates by other groups are far lower, and Assad’s government blames the episode on rebels who have been seeking to overthrow his government in a civil war that began more than two years ago. A United Nations inspection team is awaiting lab results on tissue and soil samples it collected while in the country before completing a closely watched report.
As Obama has often noted, the country is weary of war after more than a decade of combat deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq, and there is residual skepticism a decade after Bush administration claims went unproven that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.
Yet the president’s decision to seek congressional approval presents lawmakers with a challenge, as well. Even some of Obama’s sternest critics in Congress expressed strong concerns about the repercussions of a failure to act.
House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, R-Va., said after Tuesday’s White House meeting that a failure to respond to the use of chemical weapons “only increases the likelihood of future (weapons of mass destruction) use by the regime, transfer to Hezbollah, or acquisition by al-Qaida.”
Apart from the meeting with Obama, the White House provided closed-door briefings for members of Congress.
Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said after attending one session that administration officials told lawmakers that the targets the military had identified last week were still present, despite the highly public discussion of a possible attack. “Seems strange to see some targets still available several weeks later,” Flake said, adding that he was “still listening” to the administration’s lobbying.
Dempsey addressed the same point later in the day. “Time works both ways,” he told the Senate panel. He said the United States has significant intelligence about Assad’s actions, and “we continue to refine our targets.”
Others were firmly opposed. Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma said on Fox News, “It may sound real easy when people like Secretary Kerry say that ‘It is going to be quick and we’re going to go in, we’re going to send a few cruise missiles, wash our hands and go home.’ It doesn’t work that way. This could be a war in the Middle East. It’s serious.”
Shortly after Boehner left the White House after the meeting, his spokesman Michael Steel said, “Everyone understands that it is an uphill battle to pass a resolution, and the speaker expects the White House to provide answers to members’ questions and take the lead on any whipping effort.”
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was noncommittal about Obama’s request. “While we are learning more about his plans, Congress and our constituents would all benefit from knowing more about what it is he thinks needs to be done — and can be accomplished — in Syria and the region,” McConnell said in a statement.
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