today. martha: wendell goler traveling with the president, joins us live from stockholm. wendell, how did the president defend his decision to request military action in syria? >> reporter: the president defended the accuracy with the intelligence with russian president putin comparing situation in syria with iraq in 2003. president obama says no one denies chemical weapons were used and the dispute who used them. they were fired from areas controlled by the syrian government into the areas of opposition strength. he warnerred it is easier to find reasons not to act. >> i do think that we have to act. because if we don't, we are effectively saying that even though we may condemn it and issue resolutions and so forth and so on, somebody who is not shamed by resolutions can continue to act with impunity. >> reporter: the president said