an authorization to use force here. i don t think it is in america s interest. i don t think we should in effect take sides in the syrian conflict. there s very little to recommend either side to me and i think the notion that a limited strike which is what the president seems to be pursuing will not create a deterrent effect with respect to either to syria s use of chemical weapons or more seriously, iran s nuclear weapons program. so all in all, since i don t see any utility to, to the use of military force in syria in this context, i would vote no. now the argument that the administration makes is the president s committed us here. it will cause a huge blow to america s credibility if congress doesn t approve the use of force and i would say, huge blow to america s credibility compared to what? compared to the mess the president s already made of it? i just don t think there s a convincing argument here and frankly it doesn t matter what the intelligence shows. i don t think there i
quite a bit of carnage and if they could get in their hands any type of nuclear device or dirty bomb they certainly could but the point i was making it s much more spread out and have someone like al qaeda i m sorry, al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, aqap working on implanting bombs in people s body, we could have very significant just not small amounts of people, not 3,000 like 9/11 but still very large. with regard to the timing we ve been looking to today, august 4th as being the day something would happen. here we are now into the afternoon east coast time even further into the day overseas where the heightened security really is. is nothing happens today how long do we keep our guard up at this level and do we have to maintain it here in the states, as well? it really depends what the intelligence shows. this is being monitored so
iran. they at least now agree that containment is not a policy, the united states and israel are aligned and iran cannot go in and clear. the president said this before but he said it in the oval office. he said it publicly. said it at the state of the union. he made it very forceful, that s a commitment. they are in grave disagreement over how long one can wait. what the intelligence shows. the u.s. position is that the intelligence will let us know when iran makes the decision to build a weapon and that once that happens, we have a full year before we have to take military action. israel s position is very different. we may not know. we don t necessarily know what iran is up to. a we can t take the chance. we may have to take action, military action, far sooner in order to make sure that iran has not made its nuclear program so invulnerable to attack that we can t get out. what is it that makes you feel