with grenada it was defense of american civilians in grenada and if you look at the other circumstances where war was planned in advance, i think there was authorization. whether it was through congress in the two iraq wars or through nato as in bosnia or through the united nations in libya a few months ago. i think presidents both for the legal the legitimacy of their own tenure and also for their own political good, there has to be some sort of justification other than they think that it s just a good idea. steven, what do you think? fareed, i fall on the other side of the spectrum. the commander in chief power is in our executive and putting aside for a moment whether or not strikes on syria would be a prudent thing to do, i believe that the president does have the
ability to make chemical strikes, we have telegraphed our strategy, our tactics to assad. and we re going to congress. we ve stretched out the period of time that assad has to thwart those plans and then by going to congress, congress is trying to legislate this war, which is a bad idea. the current resolution being debated in the senate says something about no boots on the ground. well, you can t restrict a president s power, the commander in chief s power once we go to war. we have to have all options available. jeff, you made a distinction i want to understand a little better. you were talking about either congressional authority or something from the u.n. but the constitution doesn t have say anything about the u.n. authorization. presumably the crucial thing from a constitutional point of view is whether or not you need congressional authorization for the president to act. why would the u.n. or nato be sufficient? fareed, i don t want to
again, it has to be in the broader strategy. what you don t want to see happen is him dust himself off, take the blow, and carry on as if nothing has happened. you have to think not only about the first strike but then how do you posture yourself so that at the end he rides it out. you want to arm the rebels because you want to divisively shift the balance of power. what do you say to those people within the u.s. military who say, look, we ve been trying to find these rebels, hundreds if not more militias, some of them are radical allied with al qaeda. others are not. in any event, this is much more difficult to do and don t pin your hopes on this. fareed, we had a lot more options two years ago. the opposition has become more radicalized because we ve sat on our hands.
ask fawaz very quickly on that issue. if there is going to be a diplomatic settlement, fawaz, very quickly, is russia the key? and can it be wooed? russia is a pivotal player, but this conflict, fareed, is a regional conflict. you have to involve the regional powers. turkey, saudi arabia and iran. you can not bounce around inn, hezbollah and iraq and take in saudi arabia. i hope the united states, the obama administration uses this particular moment to renew efforts of diplomacy, try to involve the regional powers who have major stakes in the conflict inside syria to end the carnage. this is not about the credibility of the u.s. presidency, this is about stopping the blood shed inside syria and the killing that has been taking place for two years and a half. we have to get out, soli, fawaz, thank you very much.
military strike outweigh any advantages. i don t think that an american military strike or strikes would make a critical difference. in fact most probably it would exacerbate an already complex situation. quickly. it would deepen the involvement of regional powers in the syrian conflict. this is not just a conflict between assad and the opposition, this is a regional conflict. you have two camps. turkey, saudi arabia and qatar and you have iran, syria, hezbollah and to a lesser extent iraq. you re going to see intensification of tensions. in particular tensions inside syria and neighboring states. if assad survives, i would argue that an american military strike would turn assad into an arab hero, standing to the might of the greatest american and western powers. and also, i think, what you might see is that an american attack or attacks, fareed, would rekindle collective memories in