Apparently he has decided that he cannot do this completely alone, and so now is going to try to drum up support for aiding the jihadists in Syria. “Obama puts Syria strike on hold, opposition ‘disappointed,'” from AFP, September 1:
Syria’s opposition expressed disappointment Sunday that President Barack Obama had put on hold military action against the Damascus regime, but said it was confident US lawmakers would green-light a strike.
To general surprise, the US leader on Saturday broke with decades of precedent to announce that he would seek approval from Congress for action against Syria’s alleged use of chemical weapons.
Why is AFP lying about this? The Iraq War Resolution was passed by Congress in October 2002.
This effectively pushed military action back until at least September 9, when US lawmakers return from their summer recess.
Obama insisted that he reserves the right to strike regardless of Congress’s decision, and a White House official said the pause would also allow him time to build international support.
“We had a feeling of disappointment. We were expecting things to be quicker, that a strike would be imminent… But we believe Congress will approve a strike,” said Samir Nashar, a top official at the Syrian National Coalition.
Nashar said the coalition was confident that Arab foreign ministers who meet Sunday in Cairo would give “very strong support” to US-led military action.
“The coalition will get in touch with Arab countries and Turkey so that they cooperate as much as possible with the United States,” he said.
“We will try to push these countries to take part in the military operation, which will greatly alleviate the suffering of Syrians.”
Obama travels to Russia next week for a G20 Summit that will now be overshadowed by the crisis.
Officials said Obama would lobby world powers on the sidelines of the St Petersburg summit, while at home the White House was reaching out to lawmakers.
But the toughest battle, and perhaps the most dangerous for Obama’s credibility, may yet be with his own former colleagues in Congress, where support for strikes is far from assured.
Obama’s Democrats control the Senate but the House of Representatives is in the hands of his Republican foes and both sides are divided on the issue, making the outcome uncertain.
Indeed, observers warned that Obama faces the same fate as Prime Minister David Cameron, who on Thursday lost his own vote on authorising military action in the British parliament.
“The chairman of the joint chiefs has informed me that we are prepared to strike whenever we choose,” Obama warned during an address in the White House Rose Garden.
“Our capacity to execute this mission is not time-sensitive. It will be effective tomorrow or next week or one month from now.”…