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Obama makes case to Congress about Syria strike
Pic from Ace of Spades.
[Al Ahram] Congress is holding its first public hearing about U.S. plans for military intervention in Syria as President Barack Obama
I am the change that you seek...
seeks to convince skeptical Americans and their politicians about the need to respond to last month's alleged sarin gas attack outside Damascus.

Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey were to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday. A classified briefing open to all members of Congress was to take place as well.

The president's request for congressional authorization for limited military strikes against Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Leveler of Latakia...
's regime is at the core of the discussions planned in Washington over the next several days as Obama sends his top national security advisers to the Capitol for a flurry of briefings. And with the outcome of any vote in doubt in a war-weary Congress, Obama was to meet Tuesday with leaders of the House and Senate armed services committees, the foreign relations committees and the intelligence committees.

The president announced over the weekend that he would seek approval from Congress for military strikes against the Assad regime to respond to an attack in the Damascus suburbs last month that the U.S. says involved deadly sarin gas.

That decision sets the stage for the biggest foreign policy vote in Congress since the Iraq war. A vote could come once politicians return from summer break, which is scheduled to end 9 September.

Obama won conditional support Monday from two of his fiercest foreign policy critics, Republican Sens. John Maverick McCain
... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution...
of Arizona and Lindsey Graham
... the endangered South Carolina RINO...
of South Carolina.

A congressional vote against Obama's request "would be catastrophic in its consequences" for U.S. credibility abroad, McCain told news hounds outside the White House following an hour-long private meeting with the president.

But despite Obama's effort to assuage the two senators' concerns, neither appeared completely convinced afterward. They said they would be more inclined to back Obama if the US sought to destroy the Assad government's launching capabilities and committed to providing more support to rebels seeking to oust Assad.

"There will never be a political settlement in Syria as long as Assad is winning," Graham said.
Posted by: Fred 2013-09-04
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=375182