WASHINGTON - Top U.S. military and diplomatic officials came to Capitol Hill together Tuesday to support President Barack Obama's plan for retaliation against Syria for using chemical weapons against civilians, and they argued strongly for Congress to vote to authorize an attack.
Secretary of State John Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the risk of not acting against Syria outweighs any danger from a limited military strike aimed at crippling Syria's ability to use illegal chemical agents.
If Syria goes unpunished, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said, other embattled regimes and terrorist groups might try similar tactics, putting American troops at risk around the world.
General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sat beside the two Cabinet officers during Tuesday's marathon hearing and told skeptical senators the Obama administration's plan will not result in any U.S. military presence in Syria - "no American boots on the ground" in Syria, as Kerry phrased it.
The secretary of state repeated the argument he has been making since last week: Syrian armed forces under President Bashar al-Assad carried out a nerve gas attack two weeks ago that killed more than 1,400 people, nearly one-third of them children.
“It did happen, and the Assad regime did it," the secretary said, "...beyond any reasonable doubt."
Although some senators voiced skepticism about the Obama administration's plan, VOA Senate correspondent Michael Bowman said the intensive lobbying effort appeared to be yielding results. Several leading members of the opposition Republican Party said it would be important to support the president when Congress votes next week.
Senator Robert Menendez, who took over leadership of the Foreign Relations Committee when Kerry joined the Obama Cabinet, said the choice before Congress is stark: “We will either send a message to Syria, Iran, North Korea, Hezbollah, al-Qaida and any other non-state actors that the world will not tolerate the senseless use of chemical weapons by anyone. Or we will choose to stand silent in the face of horrific human suffering.”
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The policy debate in Washington over Syria was topic number one at the White House and on Capitol Hill Tuesday, with the rest of the world watching what the United States will do, and when.
The United Nations secretary-general said any use of chemical weapons in Syria is an “outrageous war crime,” and he called on the Security Council to “unite and develop an appropriate response” to bring the perpetrators to justice. However, Ban Ki-moon said a political solution to the crisis in accordance with the U.N. Charter is the best way to proceed. He cautioned that any use of force to punish those responsible for the chemical attack would not be legal without U.N. authorization.
“This is a larger issue than the conflict in Syria," Ban said. "This is about our collective responsibility to humankind.”
The U.N. has experts working nonstop trying to determine whether chemical weapons were used on August 21 in neighborhoods near Damascus, but there is no word yet when their report will be complete.
The U.N. chief and President Obama are both heading to this week's G20 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia. Syria is certain to top the agenda during sessions beginning on Thursday.
Obama left Washington Tuesday evening. He is stopping in Stockholm for a one-day visit before flying on to Russia.
Top lawmakers from both major U.S. political parties who met with President Obama Tuesday morning said they support his plan for a strike against Syria.
The Republican Party leader in the House of Representatives, Speaker John Boehner, has opposed Obama on many issues in the past, but said this is a different matter.
"We have enemies around the world that need to understand we are not going to tolerate this type of behavior," Boehner said, and he called on other members of his party to pledge their support.
Nancy Pelosi, who leads Obama's Democratic Party in the House, said Assad's tactics have taken Syria outside "the circle of civilized behavior," so the United States must respond.
To those who recall the uncertainties and false reports about "weapons of mass destruction" supposedly held in Iraq's arsenal 10 years ago, Obama said, “This is not Iraq and this is not Afghanistan."
The plan he has put before Congress "is a limited, proportional step that will send a clear message," Obama said, "not only to the Assad regime, but also to other countries that ... there are consequences” for using outlawed chemical weapons.