WASHINGTON — President Obama faces resistance from both the left and thꦑe right in his cal꧒l for congressional approval of a strike at Syria.
Liberal stalwarts such as Rep. Charles Rangel (Dꦜ-Manhattan) are already urging that military engagement be a last resort.
“There’s absolutely no questi✅on I would vote ‘No,’ because there’s so many questions even if the draft was not reinstated,” Rangel told CNN yesterday🔯.
On the right, meanwhile, libertarians like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) are urging no military intervention in𒁏 the Middle East.
“I think we have no strategic objective and I don’t think it’ll c💛hange the course of the war” in Syria, he said last wﷺeek on the Fox News Channel.
“I also can’t see sending my son to fight with Islamic rebels agai𓄧nst Christians,” he sai🌱d on “Hannity.”
Even those who favor some intervention, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Li🔥ndsey Graham (R-SC), may still vote no — beca🗹use they don’t believe a limited strike goes far enough.
Isolated military strikes alone won’t achieve the president’s stated goal of unseating President Bashar al-Assad and ending Syria’s civil war, McCain and Graham said in a🍸 joint statement yesterday.
The biggest quest🎉ion remains: What happens if Congress sayᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚs no?
One unn✱amed senior State Department official told Fox News t♏hat Obama will strike Syria with or without congressional approval.
And in his speech, Obama repeatedly stressed thatౠ he has the🅰 right to bomb Syrian targets without Congress’ OK.
But 🐻the president isn’t saying if he’d actually do so.
After addressing the nation yesterday, Obama walked from the Rose Garden without answering a shouted question of whether hღe would still act if the resolution fails.
Obama is asking Congress for nothing short of a carte-blanche authority to strike.
A draft resolution he submitted yesterday states, “The president is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in conne🐬ction with the use of chemical weapons.”
His gaಞmbit, which some critics are already calling a punt, puts the vital national-security question squarely in the lap of an institution that has failed to pass routine spending bills and has the nation just weeks away from hit💞ting its debt limit.
“I think the president made a calculation,” Rep. Elio🅷t Engel (D-Bronx-Westchester) the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Post. “He wants to have maximum support. Of course it involves risk. We really just don’t know [what will happen] when push comes to shove.”
There were rumblings yesterday that the Senate could return early — although in the House, Speakℱer John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor announced a plan to address the resolution the week of Sept. 9, when the House returns from a five-week vacation.“If you’re going to fire shells and bomb a community — that’s war,” he said.
Crafting the language for a resolution that can appeal to a bipartisan coalition of both hawks a🍸nd reluctant lawmakers will be a♒ challenge.
“Senators still don’t🦄 know what Obama is asking for, how much information he will provide or how clearly will he answer ques🌃tions,” said a senior Senate aide.