then vladimir putin, his foreign ministry released a report that it was the rebels that released chemicals previously and could have on the 21st. and he said they could support the military action and then added this caveat. translator: only the u.n. security council can sanction use of force against a sovereign state. any other pretext or method that might be used to justify a use of force against a sovereign state is inadmissible and can only be interpreted as an aggression. reporter: the russians have steadfa steadfastly blocked meaningful action. for his part, secretary kerry, yesterday reminded lawmakers in the house there remain as broad range of issues the u.s. and russia still cooperate together from counter terrorism to the starke treaty to reduce nuclear weapons stockpiles and north
and his team spent a year plus building public support for the invasion of iraq and got un approval and congressional authorization to use force and by the time we were ready to enter iraq three- quarters of the american people supported that action. during the time media, not all. but most were skeptical about military intervention in iraq and raised legitimate questions and pounded president bush and his team relentlessly in the run up and even still today over the war. a lot of the criticism was valid and a lot was not. when you look at the difference of that coverage and president obama going to libya without congressional approval and the run up to syria it is like night and day. nancy pelosi and john kerry clamoring to get on board with the president in this situation,
secretary of state john kerry today making the case before the house foreign affairs committee for an american assault in syria. support from foreign leaders is equally important and has been very difficult to come by in this case. chief washington correspondent james rosen is at the state department for us. hello, james. reporter: in his second consecutive day in the witness chair on capitol hill, secretary kerry was looking to clear up testimony on tuesday when he suggested in his testimony before the senate that there may be some day when the obama administration might want to send u.s. troops to syria, if only perhaps to coral loose w wmds. accordingly today in his testimony before the house the secretary em phasized president
obama seeks no authority to put boots on the ground in syria and sought to bolster intelligence to confirm a report germany s intelligence agency intercepted a phone call between hezbollah and the iranian embassy in damascus in which the two agreed bashar al assad made a mistake by ordering the chemical attack in damascus. at some point in the appropriate setting you will learn additional evidence that came to us even today which further documents the acknowledgement of various friends of the assad regime, that they know that this happened. when congressman illiani ross lay tin nen of florida asked if our arab partners are willing to pony up to pay for u.s. operations in syria, kerry said, yes, members of the arab league have offered to bear costs.