Today, i hope each of you will bring clarity to this. I know we will talk about, warfare, chemical that we will talk about how this will effect us overall. I hope we will leave here today with a clear understanding of how the strategy will be carried out. Thank you and i look over to your testimony. Secretary kerry. Members of the committee, Ranking Member corker, thank you very much for having us here today. We look forward to this opportunity to be able to share with you president obamas vision with respect to not just this action, but as senator corker has inquired appropriately, about syria itself, and the course of action in the middle east. As we convene for this debate it is not an exaggeration to say to all of you, my former colleagues, that the world is watching not just to see what we decide, but it is watching to see how we make this decision, whether in a dangerous world we can still make our government speak with one voice. They want to know if america will rise to this moment and make a difference. And the question of whether to authorize military action is, as you have said, this is obviously one of the most important decisions and responsibilities of this committee or any senator in the course of their career. The president and the administration appreciates that you have returned quickly to the Nations Capital to address it and that your appropriately beginning a process of focusing great care in great position, which is the only way to approach the potential use of military power. Ranking member corker, i know you wanted to discuss, as you have said, why syria matters to our National Security and our strategic interests. I look forward, with secretary hegel and general dempsey, to laying that out here this afternoon. But first, it is important to explain to the American People why we are here. It is important for people who may not have caught every component of the news over the course of Labor Day Weekend to join us, all of us, in focusing in on what is at stake here. That is why the president of the United States made a decision as he did, contrary to what many people thought he would do, of asking the congress to join on this decision. We are stronger as a nation when we do that. We are here because against multiple warnings by the president of the United States, from the congress, from our wrens and allies around the world, and even from russia and iran, the assad regime and only undeniably the assad regime unleashed an outrageous chemical attack against its own citizens. We are secure because a dictator and his familys personal enterprise, in their lust to hold onto power, were willing to infect the air of damascus with a poison that killed mothers and fathers and children. Some people amazingly have questioned the evidence of this assault on conscience. I repeat again today that only the most willful desire to avoid reality can assert that this did not occur as described or that the regime did not do it. It it happen. And the assad regime did it. I remember iraq. Secretary hegel remembers iraq. General dempsey especially remembers iraq. Secretary hegel and i and you on the day us remember iraq and a special way because we were here for that vote. We voted. We are especially sensitive, chuck and i, to never again asking any member to take a vote on faulty intelligence. That is why our Intelligence Committee has scrubbed and re scrub the evidence. We have declassified unprecedented amount of information and we ask the American People and the rest of the world to judge that information. We can tell you beyond any reasonable doubt that our evidence proves the assad regime prepared for this attack, issued instructions to prepare for this attack, warned its own forces to use gas masks we have physical evidence of where the rockets came from and when. Contrary to my discussion with their foreign minister who said we are nothing to hide. I said if you have nothing to hide, let the inspectors in today and let it be unrestricted. It was not, and they did not. It took four days of shelling before they finally allowed the men under prearranged structure. We have now where the hair and blood samples from First Responders in east damascus have tested positive for sarin. I can tell you we know things beyond a reasonable doubt for the standard we send people to jail for lives. Were here because of what happened two weeks ago, but also were here because of what happened nearly a century ago. In the darkest moments of world war i when the vast majority of the world came together to declare that no Uncertain Terms that chemical weapons crossed the lines and must be the end for use from ever. Over the years that followed, over 180 countries, including iran, iraq and russia agreed and joined the chemical weapons convention. Even countries with whom we agree on little, agreed on that conviction. Some have tried to suggest the debate were having today is about president obama is red line. I could not more forcefully state that is just plain and we have now learned haveair and fund samples tested positive for signatures of sarah and gas. Sarin gas. We know what happened. For all of the lawyers, the former prosecutors, those who have sat on a jury, we know these things beyond a reasonable doubt that is the standard eye which we send people to jail for the rest of their lives. Are here because of what happened to of weeks ago. Were here because of what happened two weeks ago, but also were here because of what happened nearly a century ago. In the darkest moments of world war i when the vast majority of the world came together to declare that no Uncertain Terms that chemical weapons crossed the lines and must be the end for use from ever. Over the years that followed, over 180 countries, including iran, iraq and russia agreed and joined the chemical weapons convention. Even countries with whom we agree on little, agreed on that conviction. Some have tried to suggest the debate were having today is about president obama is red line. I could not more forcefully state that is just plain and simply wrong. This is about the world redlined, humanities red line. A line that anyone with a conscious ought to drop. This is about congress up red line. You agreed to the chemical weapons convention. You the congress have spoken out about grave consequences if assad use chemical weapons. I said to you, that is one of the reasons why a assyria is important. As we debate and the world watches and you decide in the world wonders, not whether the regime executed the worst chemical weapons attack of the 21st century, that fact i think is now beyond question. The world wonders whether United States of america will consent through silence to standing aside will this while this kind of brutality is allowed to happen without consequence. In the nearly 100 years since the first global commitment against chemical weapons, only to tyrants there to cross the worlds brightest minds. Now he has become the third. I think all of you know that history holds nothing but empty for those criminals. History reserves all so very little sympathy for the enablers. So the reality is the gravity of this moment. That is the importance of the decision that this congress bases and the world is waiting to learn about in these next days. A Ranking Member corker the central question, why should americans care, beyond what i just said, which ought to be enough in the judgment of the president and this administration . Well, it is clear that in addition to what i have just mentioned about the syria accountability act and threats to the middle east, we cannot overlook the impact of chemical weapons and the danger they pose to a particularly volatile area of the world in which we have been deeply invested four years. Because we have great friends here yet we of allies. Deep interest there. Since president obamas policy is that assad must go, if its not insignificant that the to deprive him of the capacity to use chemical weapons or to degrade the capacity to use chemical weapons actually deprived him of a Lethal Weapon in this ongoing civil war, and that has an impact. That can help to speed stabilize the region alternately. In addition, we have strategic National Security interests. To avoid the creation of the safe haven in syria or the base of operation for extremists to use the weapons against our friends. All of us know the extremes of both sides are there waiting in the wings, poking pushing and fighting. They would be desperate to get their hands on these materials. The fact is if nothing happens to begin to change the current calculation, that area can become even more so an area of uncovered those extremists threaten either the United States or in war or more immediately, allies and friends of ours like jordan, israel, lebanon on or others. Forcing him to change the calculation about the ability to act with impunity can contribute to his realization that he cannot gas or shoot his way out of his predicament. It has been the president s primary goal to achieve a negotiated resolution, but you have to have party is prepared to negotiate to achieve that. Syria is important because quite simply, i cannot put this to you more plainly, then to just ask each of you to ask yourself, if you are assad or any one of the other desperate in the region and the United States steps back from this moment together with our other allies and friends, what is the message . The message is he has been granted impunity. The freedom to choose the weapons again or force us to go through the cycle again with who knows what outcome after once refusing it. We would grant him the capacity to use the weapons against more people with greater levels of damage because we would have stood and stepped away. As confidently as we know what happened in damascus on august 21, we know that stepping away is using it with impunity. Opportunity for dictators to pursue their own weapons of mass destruction, including weapons of mass destruction. I will tell you there are some people hoping the United States congress is hoping to not vote for this proposal. Everyone is looking to look the other way. Iran is looking for us to look the other way. Hezbollah is open isolationism will prevail. North korea is hoping ambivalence carries the day. They are all listening for our silence. If we do not answer him today, we will erode a standard that has existed for those 100 years. In fact, we will erode the standard that has protected our own troops in war, and we will invite even more dangerous tests down the road. Our allies and partners are also counting on us in the situation. The people of israel, jordan, turkey, each look next door in see they are one stiff breeze away from the potential of being hurt, of the civilians being killed as the consequences of choices assad might take in the absence of action. They anxiously await our assurance that our word means something. They await the assurance that if children live up in shrouds were their own children would keep the world promise. That is what theyre hoping. The authorization that president obama seeks is definitively in the National Security interest. We need to send a message to the dictators, allies, civilians alike, the unmistakable message that when the United States of america and the world say never again, we do not mean sometimes. We do not mean the somewhere. Never means never. So this is a vote for accountability. Norms in loss keep the civilized world civil mean nothing if theyre not enforced. As Justice Jackson said at the nuremberg trial, the ultimate step and avoiding periodic wars, which are inevitable in a system of International Law was this, is to make states men responsible to the law. It the worlds worst desperate sees they can flaunt against the worlds best weapons, then those prohibitions are just pieces of paper. That is what we mean by accountability. That is what we mean by we cannot be silent. Let me be clear, president obama is not asking america to go to war. I say that sitting next to two men who know what war is. Senator mccain and knows what war is. They know the difference between going to war, and what president obama is requesting now. We all agree there will be no american boots on the ground. The president has made Crystal Clear we have no intention of assuming responsibility for serious civil war. Asking only for the power to make clear, to make certain the United States means what we say, that the world, when we join together in a multilateral statement means what we say. Asking for authorization to degrade and the terror the capacity to use chemical weapons. Some will undoubtedly ask, and i think appropriately, what about the unintended consequences. Some feared retaliation that leads to a larger conflict. Let me put it bluntly. If he is arrogant enough, and i would say foolish enough to retaliate to the consequences of his own camp criminal activity, the United States and allies have ample ways to make him regret the decision without going to war. Even his supporters say publicly that the use of chemical weapons is unacceptable. Some will also questioned the extent of our responsibility. To them i say, when someone kills hundreds of children with a weapon the world has banned, we are all responsible. That is true because of the Geneva Convention and chemical weapons convention. For us, the syria accountability act. It is also true because we share a common humanity and common decency. This is not the time for armed terror isolationism. This is not the time to be spectators slaughtered. We have spoken up against unspeakable horror many times in the past. Now we must and up and act and protect our security, protect our values, and lead the world with conviction that is clear about our responsibility. Thank you. [inaudible] the committee will be in order. The committee will be in order. Please restore order. Nobody supports launching cruise missiles. The American People do not want secretary kerry secretary hagel. The first time i testified before this committee when i was 27yearsold, i have feelings very similar to that protester. I would say that is exactly why it is so important we are all here having this debate, talking about these things before the country, and that the congress itself will act representing the American People. I think we all could respect those who have a different point of view, and we do. Mr. Chairman, thank you. German mendez, senator corker, and members of the committee, as we all know in the coming days, congress will debate how to respond to the most recent chemical weapons attack in syria. Large scale gas attacks perpetrated by the Syrian Government against its own people. As a former senator and a member of this committee, i welcome this debate, and i strongly support president obamas decision to seek congressional authorization for the use of force in syria. As each of us knows, committing the country to using military force is the most difficult decision americas leaders can make. As Ranking Member cooker noted. All of us that our privilege to serve the nation have the responsibility to ask tough questions before the commitment is made. The American People must be assured leaders are acting according to u. S. National interest with welldefined military objectives. With an understanding of the risks of the consequences and rolled. The president , along with the entire National Security team ask those questions before we concluded that the United States should take military action i want to express how we reach this discussion decision by clarifying the military objectives and risk of not acting at this critical juncture. As president obama said, the use of chemical weapons is syria is not only an assault on humanity, a serious threat to americas National Security interests and those of our closest allies. The Syrian Regime use of chemical weapons poses a grave risk to friends and partners along at serious border, including israel, jordan, turkey, lebanon, and iraq. If assad is prepared to use chemical weapons against his own people, we have to be concerned that terrorist groups that have forces in syria would acquire them. And would use them. That risk of chemical weapons proliferation poses a direct threat to our friends, partners and the u. S. Personnel in the region. We cannot afford for his law or any terrorist group determined to strike the United States to have a sentence to acquire or use chemical weapons. The regime actions risk eroding the century Old International norm against the use of chemical weapons that secretary kerry has noted. The norm that has helped protect the United States on land. Weakening this norm would impose other nations to acquire or use chemical weapons. For example, north korea maintained a mass of stockpile entrant threatens the treaty ally, the republic of korea, and the 28,000 u. S. Troops stationed there. I have just returned from asia. We are at we had a very serious and long cover station with the defense minister about the threat, the real threat of the stockpile of chemical weapons. Our allies throughout the world must be assured the United States will fulfill commitments. The United States must demonstrate through actions that the use of chemical weapons is unacceptable. The president has made it clear that our military objectives in syria would be to hold the regime accountable, to greed and the ability to carry out these kinds of attacks, and deter the regime from further use of