President Barack Obama gained ground Tuesday with his drive for congressional backing of a military strike against Syria, winning critical support from the top Republican in Washington. Key Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed to back legislation ruling out the use of US ground troops in any military response to a suspected chemical weapons attack.
The Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, said taking action is something ‘the United States as a country needs to do.’
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.’ Obama on Saturday unexpectedly stepped back from ordering a military strike under his own authority and announced Saturday that he would seek congressional approval. The president urged Congress to hold a prompt vote once it returns from holiday next week. He also tried to assure the public that involvement in Syria will be a ‘limited, proportional step.’
‘This is not Iraq, and this is not Afghanistan,’ Obama said. He met with top lawmakers hours before he leaves on a three-day trip to Europe, with a visit to Sweden and a G-20 summit in Russia.
Lawmakers in both the Republican and Democratic parties called for changes in the president’s requested legislation, insisting it be rewritten to restrict the type and duration of any military action. Officials said the emerging Senate measure would receive a vote Wednesday in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Approval is likely.
In the Senate, the compromise was the work of Sens. Bob Menendez, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Bob Corker, the senior Republican on the panel. Their committee held a lengthy hearing during the day on Obama’s request for congressional legislation in support of the military reprisal he wants.
The proposed measure would set a time limit of 60 days for any military action and says the president could extend that for 30 days more unless Congress has a vote of disapproval. The measure also bars the use of U.S. ground troops for ‘combat operations.’
The White House had no immediate reaction to the Senate measure, although Kerry, testifying earlier before the committee, signaled that the troop restriction was acceptable to the administration. ‘There’s no problem in our having the language that has zero capacity for American troops on the ground,’ he said.
Kerry, one of three senior officials to make the case for military intervention at the hearing, had said earlier that he’d prefer not to have such language, hypothesizing the potential need for sending ground troops ‘in the event Syria imploded’ or to prevent its chemical weapons cache from falling into the hands of a terrorist organization.
‘President Obama is not asking America to go to war,’ Kerry said. He added, ‘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.
The Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, said taking action is something ‘the United States as a country needs to do.’
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.’ Obama on Saturday unexpectedly stepped back from ordering a military strike under his own authority and announced Saturday that he would seek congressional approval. The president urged Congress to hold a prompt vote once it returns from holiday next week. He also tried to assure the public that involvement in Syria will be a ‘limited, proportional step.’
‘This is not Iraq, and this is not Afghanistan,’ Obama said. He met with top lawmakers hours before he leaves on a three-day trip to Europe, with a visit to Sweden and a G-20 summit in Russia.
Lawmakers in both the Republican and Democratic parties called for changes in the president’s requested legislation, insisting it be rewritten to restrict the type and duration of any military action. Officials said the emerging Senate measure would receive a vote Wednesday in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Approval is likely.
In the Senate, the compromise was the work of Sens. Bob Menendez, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Bob Corker, the senior Republican on the panel. Their committee held a lengthy hearing during the day on Obama’s request for congressional legislation in support of the military reprisal he wants.
The proposed measure would set a time limit of 60 days for any military action and says the president could extend that for 30 days more unless Congress has a vote of disapproval. The measure also bars the use of U.S. ground troops for ‘combat operations.’
The White House had no immediate reaction to the Senate measure, although Kerry, testifying earlier before the committee, signaled that the troop restriction was acceptable to the administration. ‘There’s no problem in our having the language that has zero capacity for American troops on the ground,’ he said.
Kerry, one of three senior officials to make the case for military intervention at the hearing, had said earlier that he’d prefer not to have such language, hypothesizing the potential need for sending ground troops ‘in the event Syria imploded’ or to prevent its chemical weapons cache from falling into the hands of a terrorist organization.
‘President Obama is not asking America to go to war,’ Kerry said. He added, ‘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.