Obama's push for military strike on Syria kicks up a notch

Facing little enthusiasm from Congress or the public for his proposal to launch a military strike against Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime for its alleged use of chemical weapons, President Obama on Tuesday will make his most aggressive efforts to date to convince America that military action would be justified.

The president will meet with Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans behind closed doors during their respective weekly policy luncheons to discuss his proposal. On Tuesday night, he will deliver a televised address to make his case to the nation.

In an interview Monday with "CBS Evening News" anchor Scott Pelley, Mr. Obama explained that the U.S. should intervene both for humanitarian reasons and for security reasons.

"We should all be haunted by those images of those children that were killed," Mr. Obama said, referring to video evidence that around 400 Syrian children were killed by a chemical weapons attack. "But more importantly, we should understand that when we start saying it's okay to, or at least that there's no response to the gassing of children, that's the kind of slippery slope that leads eventually to these chemical weapons being used more broadly around the world. That's not the kind of world that we want to leave to our children."

A new CBS News poll shows that six in 10 Americans oppose military air strikes against Syria, and a majority, 56 percent, disapproves of how Mr. Obama is handling the matter. Only 14 percent of Americans say the administration has explained its goals for a strike, while 79 percent say it has not.

Mr. Obama told Pelley that he doesn't expect his remarks Tuesday night to "suddenly swing the polls wildly in the direction of another military engagement."

"If you ask the average person, including my household, 'Do we need another military engagement?' I think the answer generally is going to be no," he said. "But what I'm going try to propose is, is that we have a very specific objective, a very narrow military option, and one that will not lead into some large-scale invasion of Syria or involvement or boots on the ground."

The president's remarks on Tuesday will not only serve to persuade the public but also lawmakers wary of authorizing a military strike that the public does not support. The Senate was expected to take a procedural vote on authorization on Wednesday, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced Monday night that he was delaying the vote to give Mr. Obama more time to make his case.

"I don't think we need to see how fast we can do this," Reid said on the Senate floor. "We have to see how well we can do this matter."

The president has already privately engaged with lawmakers on the matter, but some lawmakers say he made his job harder when he said last week that his credibility wasn't on the line, even though he specifically called chemical weapons use a "red line" that should not be crossed. "The international community's credibility is on the line," Mr. Obama said. "And America and Congress' credibility is on the line."

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., a top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said to CBS News that in a Sunday night meeting, he told the president that those remarks "have not helped build support in Congress for an authorization."

Corker said, "Therefore, I reiterated to him the importance of Tuesday night's speech, in which he must show real leadership and make the case for why the kind of limited military action he's asked Congress to authorize is necessary."

According to a CBS News estimate, only about one in 10 members of Congress are currently in favor of military action or leaning towards supporting it. At least one senator, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said Monday she would support the resolution, while a handful said they would not support it.

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., announced her opposition to military force and said she would instead join with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., to put forward an alternative resolution endorsing a diplomatic response to Assad's alleged use of chemical weapons.

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Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/cbsnews/feed/~3/8ztMV1CB3pg/

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