WASHINGTON
(AP) -- A Senate panel's deep divide over giving President Barack Obama
the authority to use U.S. military force against Syria underscores the
commander in chief's challenge in persuading skeptical lawmakers and
wary allies to back greater intervention in an intractable civil war.
The
administration was pressing ahead Thursday with its full-scale sales
job, holding another round of closed-door meetings for members of
Congress about its intelligence on Syria. On another continent, Obama
was certain to face questions from world leaders when he arrives in St.
Petersburg, Russia, for an economic summit.
The
event's host, Russian President Vladimir Putin, stands as a reminder of
resistance to U.S. pleas for Moscow to intervene with its ally Syria
and President Bashar Assad.
Obama has called
for military action after the administration blamed Assad for a chemical
weapons attack on Aug. 21 that it says killed more than 1,400
civilians, including at least 400 children. Other casualty estimates are
lower, and the Syrian government denies responsibility, contending
rebels fighting to topple the government were to blame.
Responding
to Obama's request, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 10-7
Wednesday to authorize the "limited and specified use" of the U.S. armed
forces against Syria, backing a resolution that restricts military
action to 90 days and bars American ground troops from combat.
Obama's
deputy national security adviser, Tony Blinken, picked up the sales
pitch for the absent president Thursday, appearing on several morning
news shows.
In an appearance on MSNBC, Blinken
said he believes the American people will be more supportive of Obama's
request once they see the Syrian situation as a separate and distinct
problem as opposed to viewing it "in the prism of the last decade" of
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"This is not
open-ended. This is not boots on the ground. This is not Afghanistan.
This is not Iraq. This is not even Libya," Blinken said.
He
said that if the United States does not stand up to Assad and against
the use of chemical weapons, some world figures will believe "it's OK to
use them with impunity."
Secretary of State
John Kerry, testifying for the second consecutive day before Congress,
insisted that the U.S. military response would be restricted as
Americans fatigued by more than a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan
show little inclination to get involved in Syria.
"I
don't believe we're going to war, I just don't believe that," Kerry
told the House Foreign Affairs Committee, citing the ground troops and
long-term commitment that he said wars entail. "That's not what we're
doing here. The president is asking for permission to take a limited
military action, yes, but one that does not put Americans in the middle
of the battle."
In the Senate, five
Republicans, including potential presidential candidates Rand Paul and
Marco Rubio, and two Democrats opposed the resolution, which is expected
to reach the Senate floor next week. The timing of a vote is uncertain.
"I
believe U.S. military action of the type contemplated here might prove
to be counterproductive," Rubio said. "After a few days of missile
strikes, it will allow Assad, for example, to emerge and claim that he
took on the United States and survived."
Paul,
a Kentucky conservative with strong tea party ties, has threatened a
filibuster, although he acknowledged that proponents have the votes to
prevail in the Senate, and he pinned his hopes on the House.
The
notion of a contained operation has failed to sway many Republicans and
Democrats in the House, who question why the U.S. should get involved
now in a Syrian civil war that has killed an estimated 100,000,
displaced millions and is in its third year. While House Speaker John
Boehner, R-Ohio, and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., have expressed
support for military action, but rank-and-file Republicans remain
reluctant or outright opposed.
Republican Rep.
Chris Collins said voters in his western New York district are
"overwhelmingly against involvement." The freshman congressman is
undecided.
"Really, I'm looking for the
president to justify limited military strike and establish what are the
objectives he's seeking and what is the mission," Collins said in a
phone interview.
Kerry told the Foreign
Affairs Committee that he believed Obama would address the nation on
Syria in the next few days. The president returns home from overseas
Friday night.
Speaking in Sweden on Wednesday,
Obama left open the possibility he would order retaliation for the
deadly chemical weapons attack even if Congress withheld its approval.
"I
always preserve the right and responsibility to act on behalf of
America's national security," he told a news conference. In a challenge
to lawmakers back home, he said Congress' credibility was on the line,
not his own, despite saying a year ago that the use of chemical weapons
would cross a "red line."
The Senate panel's
vote marked the first formal response in Congress, four days after Obama
unexpectedly put off an anticipated cruise missile strike against Syria
and instead asked lawmakers to unite behind such a plan.
The vote capped a hectic few days in which lawmakers first narrowed the scope of Obama's request and then widened it.
Sen.
John McCain, R-Ariz., a proponent of aggressive U.S. military action in
Syria, joined forces with Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware to
add a provision calling for "decisive changes to the present military
balance of power on the ground in Syria."
At
their urging, the measure was also changed to state that the policy of
the United States was "to change the momentum on the battlefield in
Syria so as to create favorable conditions for a negotiated settlement
that ends the conflict and leads to a democratic government in Syria."
McCain, who long has accused Obama of timidity in Syria, argued that
Assad will be willing to participate in diplomatic negotiations only if
he believes he is going to lose the civil war he has been fighting for
more than two years.
---
Associated
Press writers Julie Pace and Josh Lederman in Sweden and Bradley
Klapper, Alan Fram, Deb Riechmann, Kimberly Dozier, Lolita C. Baldor and
Andrew Taylor in Washington contributed to this report.
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