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Re: Obama: "US should take military action against Syria", seeks Congressional Apporv
Again, I disagree. I firmly believe there are wider implications here - more for America to lose had the President taken a unilateral approach - implications that go much farther than a President's face-saving efforts or maintaining popularity at home or abroad.
My fear is that his uncertainty is getting the better of him. I think people in his administration (Kerry, Rice, etc) are far more enthusiastic about military involvement than he is and I wouldn't be surprised of the bellicose rhetoric we've seen the past week or so has mostly been independently leaked as opposed to White House policy in an effort to shape the narrative over Syria and back him into a corner. The plodding nature of our shift towards Syria has been odd and I worry that he is using Congressional authorization as a procedural crutch to either delay a decision, provide political shielding, or take his administration off the hook for US action. I just can't imagine there is a strong majority in the House for these and I fear embarrassment as Congressional Republicans reflexively vote no and choice liberal contingents rebel to combine for a humiliating Cameron-esque defeat. What that would do to our position in the wider region and in the face of a challenge from Russia I can't begin to imagine.
Doing nothing was something I'd disagreed with for a long time but to come to the brink of intervention and to arouse all manner of opposition and to prove incapable of action is a terribly dangerous precedent to set.
Again, I disagree. I firmly believe there are wider implications here - more for America to lose had the President taken a unilateral approach - implications that go much farther than a President's face-saving efforts or maintaining popularity at home or abroad.