example. this vote if and when it comes about, i think probably i don t see the polling on this turning around fast enough for the white house to get the votes. the american people don t support congress, either, we should stipulate. at all. no one supports anyone, tommy. that s the point. that s why it s impossible to wage wars under these conditions. no one has any credibility. there s a complete and total blanket crisis of authority. no one trusts anything after years of failure and misery and destruction. i m sorry if i m expounding here. it s true. people look at this entire thing and think, are you out of your mind? there is healthy skepticism after iraq about taking someone s word for it before we go to war. this is very different. this is a short, limited operation. we re talks a couple hundred cruise missiles hitting chemical weapons sites in syria. yes, there is the potential to get pulled into something longer. the white house has been very clear about what they want
keep obsessing on it in private meetings. you have to imagine he was kind of seeing all of this through a personal lens. and this was all happening while there were protests exploding of course now we re in the situation with syria. russia has quite famously blocked any u.n. security council action. even the most basic condemning of the human rights, you know, violations of the regime. very basic stuff. there s an anecdote in baker s story in which the firm time that the president s national security adviser goes to meet with putin, the first thing putin says to him is when are you going to start bombing syria? this was 18 months ago. you can imagine watching this unfold that from putin s perspective, this is playing out precisely what he thought the u.s. was about. that was actually right after gadhafi was killed. that was right after the nato bombing campaign in libya. this was already on his mind. there were protests happening in moscow.
turning around fast enough for the white house to get the votes. the american people don t support congress, either, we should stipulate. at all. no one supports anyone, tommy. that s the point. that s why it s impossible to wage wars under these conditions. no one has any credibility. there s a complete and total blanket crisis of authority. no one trusts anything after years of failure and misery and destruction. i m sorry if i m expounding here. it s true. people look at this entire thing and think, are you out of your mind? there is healthy skepticism after iraq about taking someone s word for it before we go to war. this is very different. this is a short, limited operation. we re talks a couple hundred cruise missiles hitting chemical weapons sites in syria. yes, there is the potential to get pulled into something longer. the white house has been very clear about what they want to scope this what do you say? love it or hate it, ousting assad has the virtue of being an
resolution would be a deal breaker for the white house. i don t want anybody misinterpreting this from earlier. this authorization does not contemplate and should not have any allowance for any troop on the ground. i just want to make that absolutely clear. you know, what i was doing was hypothesizing about a potential it might occur at some point in time, but not in this authorization in no way, be crystal clear, there s no problem in our having the language that has zero capacity for american troops on the ground within the authorization the president is asking for. it s no wonder secretary kerry tried to clarify that hypothetical situation. the public is strongly opposed to u.s. military action even in the event of a determination of the use of chemical weapons by syria. according to the latest poll, this is nearly reverse the findings of a december poll showing public support. in other words, as the idea of military action against syria has become less abstract, the public seem
but we begin tonight with a remarkable and dramatic day in the nation s capital. less than one week before congress officially reconvened, a senate hearing on a u.s. military strike against syria on which secretary of state john kerry offered dire, some might say hyperbolic, warnings of the consequences of inaction. the opportunity for other dictators and/or terrorists to pursue their own weapons of mass destruction including nuclear weapons. i will tell you there are some people hoping that the united states congress doesn t vote for this very limited request the president has put before you. iran is hoping you look the other way. that was just one small part of a day in which the political machinery in support of a military strike was on full display. this morning president obama held a private meeting with congressional leaders and used