Senate Panel Passes Authorization For Force Against Syria

by Scott Neuman, NPR
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A Senate panel has voted to approve a resolution giving President Obama the authority to carry out punitive strikes against Syria for its use of chemical weapons against the opposition.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the authorization by a 10-7 vote, with one senator voting present. It would need to be passed by a vote of the full Senate to come into force. That is likely to happen next week.

The vote markes the first time lawmakers have voted to authorize military action since the October 2002 vote giving President George W. Bush authority to invade Iraq.

The authorization was crafted by the committee’s top lawmakers — Democratic Chairman Bob Menendez and Republican Bob Corker.

Early Wednesday during the debate, Secretary of State John Kerry told the committee: “We are not asking America to go to war.”

Secretary of State John Kerry told the House Foreign Affairs Committee early Wednesday afternoon, as he and other top administration officials continued to push Congress to support aimed at the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Kerry pledged that the U.S. wouldn’t be drawn into a war, saying if Assad should be “arrogant and foolish enough to retaliate,” the U.S. has “ample ways to make him regret that decision without going to war.”

As we reported earlier, the resolution on the use of force against Syria has divided Republicans and Democrats alike, with Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Rand Paul of Kentucky representing differing viewpoints in the GOP.

The New York Times says the panel “struggled to draft the resolution” with Menendez and Corker:

“[pressing] … forward with a resolution limiting the duration and nature of military strikes, while Mr. McCain demanded more – not less – latitude for the military to inflict damage on the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

In the afternoon, the balance of power appeared to lie with the interventionists. The panel set aside a resolution by Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican leading the opposition to the strikes, that would have declared that the president has authority to act unilaterally only when the nation faces attack, then approved language by Mr. McCain and Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, to toughen the resolution.”