convinced and not wanting to go. do you think that that speaks at all to members of congress? do you think they re listening to people at home or to the administration that is trying to convince them to give them not needed permission but the congressional nod that it is okay to do it? i think a lot of members are listening to constituents as they always do. anyone that s thinking of running for president is thinking about how the vote will go down because remember how important how members weighed in on iraq played out. i think the president has not made this case. i think he is pushing john kerry to make a case, much like you remember when joe biden offered support for hosni mubarak, they had to smack biden down, hillary clinton spoke out on benghazi, used her as a human shield. i think the president s strategic goal is to set up congress to take the blame on this resolution. if it fails, he will blame them. if it goes through, syria turns into a debacle, say assad is
if congress votes this down, we should not be involved in the syrian war, and i think it is 50/50 whether the house will vote down involvement in the syrian war. i am glad we ended on the rand paul thought because, eric, president obama has maintained he doesn t have to have congressional approval, and from what i understand, i agree with that. they left it open to say even if this doesn t pass congress, president obama could act anyway. but if congress doesn t approve it, do you think he will do it and face the consequences? i think when france came out and said only with congressional approval do we go with you, it will hurt his case if congress says no. that means it is unilateral, obama goes alone. i think because he did draw the red line, made such a big deal with john kerry last friday saying we re going with or without congress, i think he s going to go. i think he wants to bring congress along with him, i get to garner public support, but it is not happening.
people with top secret clearance. hopefully members of congress will attend the briefing, get more information so they as our representatives can make a decision. i have a question, greg. six months ago there was a report that the assad regime used chemical weapons against their own people. there was a promise from president obama that the rebels would get weapons on the front page of the wall street journal today, report that not a single rifle, no weapon has been provided to them. then all of a sudden you have this other attack on august 21st. next day, secretary of state john kerry comes out and says it is imminent, we must act right away. but up until now, 120,000 people have been killed by the government in syria. right. but there was no consequence for that. how do you think america looks at this? why does it matter? does it matter that 1400 more were killed? why haven t we done anything before, why weren t we able to get weapons to them? yeah.
shouldn t be going. do you want to go to war in syria, of course not. 100% of americans would say no. we say no. we don t want to go to war in syria either. that s not what we re here to ask. the president is not asking you to go to war, to declare war, to send one american troop to war. he is simply saying we need to take an action that can degrade the capacity of a man who s been willing to kill his own people by breaking a nearly 100-year-old prohibition, and will we stand up and be counted to say we won t do that. that s not you know, i just don t consider that going to war in the classic sense of coming to congress and asking for a declaration of war and training troops and sending people abroad and putting young americans in harm s way. that s not what the president is asking for here. general, do you want to speak at all to that? no, not really, secretary,
and still be limited in proportion. he didn t say degrade a regime, he said degrade the ability of them to deliver chemical weapons. in 24 hours, they re going to be able to do that. they won t in 24 hours. andrea said that secretary of state kerry said removal of assad is the goal. departure of assad, and he may have already left. a general went on a personal mission, government didn t send him, he returned, he said his sources tell him assad has fled the country. here is why i m skeptical going to congress. obama didn t go to congress when it came to libya and gadhafi was asked by president bush to turn over his weapons and gladly did, didn t ask questions, here you go. the reason wasn t because of iraq. but he turned them over. didn t go to congress for that. all of the things obama bypassed congress on, why does he care about congress now? employer mandate delay, mini dream act, obama care waivers, i