{"id":21191,"date":"2013-08-27T13:08:01","date_gmt":"2013-08-27T21:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=21191"},"modified":"2013-08-27T13:08:01","modified_gmt":"2013-08-27T21:08:01","slug":"obama-wont-ask-congress-for-approval-to-attack-syria-because-approval-may-not-be-forthcoming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/27\/obama-wont-ask-congress-for-approval-to-attack-syria-because-approval-may-not-be-forthcoming\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama Won’t Ask Congress for Approval to Attack Syria Because Approval May Not Be Forthcoming"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Obama3\"<\/p>\n

It’s been mentioned that Obama, whether he thinks so or not, is going to need to get Congressional approval before he bombs Syria. It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen, given that administration officials say strikes could come as early as Thursday of this week and Congress is out of session right now.<\/p>\n

But Congress being out of session isn’t the only reason Obama doesn’t want to consult Congress, as he is legally obligated. Really, it’s because it looks like Congress might push back on his demands for war.<\/p>\n

POLITICO<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Despite mounting evidence that President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons on his people, many members of Congress still don\u2019t see a role for the United States military in Syria.<\/p>\n

A raft of Republican and Democratic lawmakers \u2014 including those directly involved in intelligence oversight \u2014 think the U.S. would be wise to take a pass on military intervention in the war-torn country.<\/p>\n

\u201cSyria is too far gone to pick sides,\u201d said Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee who taught at West Point. \u201cThe rebels are infiltrated with Al Qaeda. Assad has joined the ranks of history\u2019s most evil despots in what he\u2019s willing to do to stay in power. And Russia won\u2019t help us find a solution because relations [between Washington and Moscow] are as bad as they have been in 30 years. I don\u2019t see a way forward, but U.S. boots on the ground is out of the question in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Loretta Sanchez of California, the No. 2 Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said that the situation in Syria is \u201cas complicated as it could be\u201d but added that military intervention in Syria could \u201chave unintended consequences that could, in fact, make the situation worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should take all necessary steps to support the United Nations inspection efforts and keep a close watch on who has access and who could have access to chemical weapons,\u201d Sanchez said in an emailed statement. \u201cWe need to make sure an attack of this nature cannot happen again. Going forward, Congress should be involved in any course of action that the Obama Administration takes.\u201d<\/p>\n

…Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said that \u201cAbsent an imminent threat to United States national security, the U.S. should not be engaged in military action without congressional approval.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s not clear if Congressional opposition would be enough to block any executive branch proposal for airstrikes, but it wouldn’t be a rubber stamp, which is what President Obama would want to legitimize his bombing campaign. Short of that, Obama will act unilaterally, and violate the Constitution once again.<\/p>\n

On another note, former Carter national security adviser\u00a0Zbigniew Brzezinski had the following exchange with a German think tank<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Do you think the Obama administration has a strategy or a grander plan for Syria and its aftermath after military action?<\/em><\/p>\n

Brzezinski:\u00a0If it does it’s a very well-kept secret.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been mentioned that Obama, whether he thinks so or not, is going to need to get Congressional approval before he bombs Syria. It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen, given that administration officials say strikes could come as early as Thursday of this week and Congress is out of session right now. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-21191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21191"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21193,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21191\/revisions\/21193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21191"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=21191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}