sand as the president wants you to and say we can t allow wmd to be used? i think the line in the sand should be that america gets involved when american interests are threatened. i don t see american interests involved on either side of this syrian war. i see assad, who has protected christians for a number of decades, and then i see the islamic rebels on the other side who have been attacking christians. i see al qaeda on one side, the side we would go in to support, and i see it to be murky. i don t see a clear-cut american interest. i don t see either party that is victorious victorious, if either is victorious, being an american ally. you are a united states senator. you may at some point be a candidate for the presidency. how would the united states look if the president says i have decided to take military action, i want congress to give me authority, and congress does not give that authority? i think it would show that he made a grave mistake when he
strength represented in this initiative. you re making the case, mr. secretary, which i understand, as you made it on friday. i think i m still trying to understand the abrupt shift. i know that you and others on the national security team, based on my own reporting, were opposed to the president seeking congressional authority, no. thinking that he didn t need it. the reaction from the syrian state media is that this is the beginning, they say, of an historic american retreat. do you feel undermined? do you think the united states has undermined its leverage in the world, its credibility, having ramped up the specter of military action as being imminent and then saying, well, no, we re going to go to congress first? david, i completely disagree with the fundamental premise that you set out. no, i did not oppose going, nor did anybody else that i know of originally. the issue originally was should the president of the united
i think the line in the sand should be that america gets involved when american interests are threatened. i don t see american interests involved on either side of this syrian war. i see assad, who has protected christians for a number of decades, and then i see the islamic rebels on the other side who have been attacking christians. i see al qaeda on one side, the side we would go in to support, and i see it to be murky. i don t see a clear-cut american interest. i don t see either party that is victorious, if either is victorious, being an american ally. you are a united states senator. you may at some point be a candidate for the presidency. how would the united states look if the president says i have decided to take military action, i want congress to give me authority, and congress does not give that authority? i think it would show that he made a grave mistake when he drew a red line. i think a president should be very careful about setting red lines he s not going to keep
conventional capability, and indeed even try to topple him from power? well, let me draw a distinction here, david. the president of the united states has said that assad must go, and this is the policy of the united states. but we do not believe that this military action the president has decided to take should be more than an effort to try to deter and prevent the use of chemical weapons and to degrade his capacity to use those weapons. so the military operation is not calculated to become involved in the effort to topple him, but the political operation and the support for the opposition is. and the president of the united states, as you know, has declared that we will provide additional support to the opposition. we do not believe there is any scenario under which assad can continue with any kind of authority whatsoever to govern
uses the weapons. why not draw that line in the sand as the president wants you to and say we can t allow wmd to be used? i think the line in the sand should be that america gets involved when american interests are threatened. i don t see american interests involved on either side of this syrian war. i see assad, who has protected christians for a number of decades, and then i see the islamic rebels on the other side who have been attacking christians. i see al qaeda on one side, the side we would go in to support, and i see it to be murky. i don t see a clear-cut american interest. i don t see either party that is victorious victorious, if either is victorious, being an american ally. you are a united states senator. you may at some point be a candidate for the presidency. how would the united states look if the president says i have decided to take military action, i want congress to give me authority, and congress does not give that authority?