air force. if the united states were to make good on the pledge to provide serious arms, to selected elements of the opposition, i say senator mccain and others advocated that would tilt the battle field. this will be a long process, and the decision to potentially use force in response to the chemical use policy can t bear anything like the full burden of the policy if your goal is to take the humanitarian nightmare that is contemporary syria. let s talk more about tomorrow s vote on the syria resolution before the senate foreign relations committee. joining us the author of syria, the fall of the house of assad. also joining us marvin calb, author of the book the road to
of our involvement. welcome back to hardball. that was of course senator rand paul from kentucky earlier today outlining his objections to president obama s syria resolution. paul s hardly alone. republicans have been vocal opponents of the president s stance on syria. some are arguing that obama has already failed or he isn t going far enough. by the way, two different points of view there. some of the gop will oppose him no matter what on anything. and others say he can t be trusted on anything. sparked fireworks on the hill today on a hearing on syria. jeff duncan told john kerry he couldn t believe the administration due to benghazi, the irs cover y up. has an issue with the american people due to the unanswered questions surrounding the terrorist attack in benghazi a year ago. when you factor in the irs of targeting conservative groups,
air fields, aircraft? it depends on the interpretation of what that means. thanks very much for joining us. sure. joining us, a man that advised three republican presidents, one democrat the foreign relations and author of the important book foreign policy begins at home. what do you make of this draft resolution? i think you had a chance to go through it. i m sure it will pass in the foreign relations committee and the senate but what does it say to you? well, you know, i m not in favor of the resolution both in principle and specifics ? because the president had all the authority he needed and it introduces real questions of first of all it only allows 90 days and then you need another resolution. so you re building uncertainty into america s staying power. it will put constraints on what it is we can do and the price of gaining congressional support is
what do you make of this draft resolution that the senate foreign relations committee has come up with giving the president the authority to strike in a limited way over the next 60 days with an option of adding another 30 days, if necessary? yeah, obviously, i have to look at it more carefully but based on what i ve seen and heard tonight, i would vote for it. i support the president taking action. i m similar to john mccain if we take action, it has to be meaningful actual, otherwise a cosmetic appeal but served no long-term purpose. so i would support a strong attempt to degrade the weapons capacity of both chemical weapons and the delivery systems of syria. congressman shift, the military targets in syria. would you vote for this resolution? well, i think the senate
fast and furious, and nsa spying programs. bottom line is there s a need for accountability and trust building from the administration. we re talking about people being killed by gas and you want to go talk about benghazi and fast and furious. we don t deserve to drag this into yet another benghazi discussion when the real issue here is whether or not the congress is going to stand up for international norms with respect to dictators that have only been broken twice until assad. hitler and saddam hussein. that guy s a walking clown show. anyway, the washington examiner reports that the influential conservative group heritage action has come out against the president s syria resolution. they may end up scoring gop lawmakers positions on it. in terms of how good you are. put more pressure on gop lawmakers to find a way to oppose the president. david corn with mother jones and