President Obama yesterday passed the buck on Syria, s⛎aying he is ready to strike but Congress should pull the trigger.
In a bizarre speech in the White House Rose Garden, the president said💟 he wanted to attack Syria and had every legal right to do so unilaterally — but would still ask Congress for authorization.
Any attack now is del൩ayed until Congress is back in session a week fro🃏m tomorrow. This despite Obama detailing horrific chemical attacks that killed nearly 1,500 people, including 426 children, last month.
Obꦕama appeared so at ease with his decision to defer action that he joined Vice President Joe Biden on a Virginia golf course just a half-h🎶our after the announcement.
“While I believe I 🅠have the authority to carry out this military action without specific congressional authorizati🦂on, I know the country will be stronger if we take this course and our actions will be even more effective,” Obama said. “We should have this debate. The issues are too big for business as usual.”
In the🐓 week since determining Syria’s government had unleashed chemical weapons on its people, Obama had been leaning toward acting without congressional approval, senior White House officials told NBC News.
But then on Thursday, British Prime Minister David Cameron lost a vote in Parliament that would ha💮ve authorized their joining in an allied strike — a foreign snub that has spurred Obama to seek support at home, the officials said.
Also key were polls showing as many as 80 percent of th꧃e American public wanted congr𝔍essional approval, officials said.
Just two years ago, the Obama administration attacked Libya without asking Congress for permission. At the time, it argued that since no American troops were in harm’s way — the attacks were carried out by aerial bombers and drones — it did not count as “hostilities” need💎ing legislative approval.
Obama’s plans for Syria are exactly the same — he promised no boots on the ground for a civil war that has kill🦹ed more than 100,000 people.
Rebel groups, including large numbers of Islamic fundamentalists, are seeking to oust dictator Bashar al-Ass💞ad.
Obama said the mil🎀itary has indicated the Syria “mission is not time-sensitive,” saying a US strike “will be effective tomorrow, or next week, or one month from now. And I’m prepared to give that order.
“We cannot turn a b💝lind eye to what happen൲ed in Damascus,” Obama said.
But critics blasted the president for delaying a punitive strike on Assad’s oppressive regime and risking another attack by the Syrian government on i𒐪ts own people. Five Navy ships are on standby in the Mediterranean Sea and ready to launch cruise missiles if given the order.
“President Obama is abdicating his responsibility as commander-in-chief and undermining the authority of fཧuture presidents,” said R😼ep. Peter King (R-LI). “The president doesn’t need 535 members of Congress to enforce his own red line.”
King also faulted Obama for not immediately calling Congress back to vote. The president will attend the G20 conference in St. Petersburg, Ru𒁃ssia, this week.
Detractors sai🔯d the decision appeared based more on p🔯olitics than respect for the separation of powers.
Democrats gloated over the move. If Congress votes against authorization, Republicans take whatever bl𒅌ame there is for inaction. If it backs Obama, then it w▨ill share responsibility.
“Congress is now the dog t𓆏hat caught the car,” tweeted longtime Obama adviser David Axelrod.
If the United States does act, it will do so with little i🅘nternational backing.
Housܫe observers said they couldn’t even guess where the votes are at this juncture.
“He talked a good game,” one White House aide said of the British P♏rime🀅 Minister’s embarrassing defeat in Parliament. “But, come the moment of truth, the words were empty.”
So far, only France🗹 is backiꦇng a potential US strike.
If Obama were to order a military strike👍, he’d become the first US president in 30 years to attack a foreign nation without broad international support, or America’s immediate defense at stake.
President Ronald Reagan🐠🐻 was the last to order a major military action alone with the 1983 invasion of Grenada.
Meanwhile, the FBI has reportedly incre🦩ased its surveillance of Syrians in the US as a precaution against retaliatory terror.