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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    McCain has guarded optimism after White House meeting on Syria

    McCain has guarded optimism after White House meeting on Syria

    Published September 02, 2013FoxNews.com

    Sept. 2, 2013: GOP Sens. John McCain,Ariz., left, and Lindsey Graham, S.C., speaks with reporters outside the White House in Washington, D.C.AP

    President Obama met Sunday with Sen. John McCain, considered his closest Republican ally on Capitol Hill, in his effort to win congressional support for a punitive military action against Syria, as the Pentagon prepares the Nimitz aircraft carrier group for a potential strike.

    The Arizona senator has emerged as one of Obama’s top Capitol Hill negotiators on several recent Capitol Hill deals, most notably with the president’s immigration-reform initiative that needed Republican support to pass in the Senate.

    This time Obama will need Republican support, particularly in the GOP-led House, to get Congress to vote in favor of his plan to launch a military strike against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom the administration says ordered an Aug. 21 sarin-gas attack that killed more than 1,400 of his own people.

    McCain emerged from the roughly one-hour meeting saying that Congress voting against a strike would “undermine the credibility of the president of the United States and America. … But we have a long way to go.”

    He also echoed the Capitol Hill focus that has emerged since Obama said Saturday that he would strike Syria -- making sure the effort is clearly intended to oust Assad and helping the rebels.

    “What we want to do is degrade Assad’s capabilities and upgrade that of the rebel forces,” McCain said.

    At least three U.S. ships are already in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, from where the U.S. is expected to launch a missile strike.

    The Pentagon said Monday that the Nimitz group, which includes four destroyers, will remain in the southern Red Sea and called the decision “a prudent movement of forces should the capabilities of the strike group be needed."

    McCain was joined at the White House by South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a fellow Republican and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

    Graham emerged from the meeting with similar remarks, adding that he is seeing signs that the White House is moving toward a more clearly defined mission.

    “I can’t sell an attack like the ones on Iraq and Afghanistan because I don’t want to,” he also said.

    The White House said National Security Advisor Susan Rice also attended the meeting.

    The Obama administration has lobbies Congress almost relentlessly this holiday weekend, calling leaders from both parties and leading classified briefings on Capitol Hill, in addition to the White House invitation to McCain and Graham. And members of the president’s national security team will continue those efforts in the coming days.

    The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will conduct a hearing Tuesday that is scheduled to include Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

    On Wednesday, Kerry will testify on Syria at an open hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. And Kerry along with Director of National Intelligence James Clapper will testify at a closed, classified hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

    Obama, in his efforts to win America’s support for a strike, also faces the similar-yet-larger challenge of gaining international support, with Russia and China on Monday leading the international opposition.

    Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said the information the U.S. showed Moscow trying to prove that the Syrian regime was behind the recent chemical-weapons attack is "absolutely unconvincing."

    Moscow is Assad's key ally, weapons supplier and protector at the United Nations.
    Meanwhile, China said it opposes the U.S. acting alone and that any response must conform to the United Nations Charter and the basic principles underlying international relations.

    "China is highly concerned about the relevant country's plan on taking unilateral military action," said Hong Lei, a spokesman for the country’s Foreign Ministry.
    And the Assad regime, which has denied ordering the gas attack, has reportedly asked the United Nations to prevent “any aggression” in response to the allegation.

    Right now, France is the only country to support United States' efforts, after the British Parliament last week rejected Prime Minister David Cameron’s proposal to endorse military action against Syria.

    The Assad family has ruled in Syria for four decades, and more than 100,000 people have been killed in the roughly 2-year-long civil war to overthrow the Assad regime.

    Eighty-three members of Congress attended a classified briefing Sunday on Capitol Hill with administration officials. The full House and Senate return from summer recess on Sept. 9, but party leaders are considering whether to call members back early.

    The weekend lobbying also included Kerry appearing on all five major Sunday shows, as Capitol Hill lawmakers said Obama may not have the votes right now.
    “I would say if the vote were today, it would probably be a no vote,” New York Rep. Peter King, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told “Fox News Sunday.”

    The comment underscored the risk Obama took in deciding over the weekend to seek approval from Congress, a step King argues he didn't need to take.

    Democrats also expressed reservations.

    "I certainly enter this debate as a skeptic, but I'm going to allow the administration to make its case this week," Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told NBC on Sunday.

    Kerry told “Fox News Sunday” that he couldn’t imagine Congress would “turn its back” on Israel or other U.S. allies in the region and on the Syrians slaughtered in the chemical weapons attack outside Damascus.

    Obama’s announcement Saturday followed Kerry’s impassioned speech Friday for punishing Assad, whom he called a “thug” and a “criminal.”

    However, the largely Republican opposition to the strike had already taken shape and continued Sunday.

    Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the U.S. getting involved in the roughly 2-year-long Syrian civil war is a mistake and that the president has about a “50-50” chance of getting House approval.

    The administration’s classified briefings this holiday weekend included Republicans and Democrats in the GOP-controlled House and the Democratic-controlled Senate, where Obama will likely have the strongest support for the biggest foreign policy vote since Congress authorized President George W. Bush to invade Iraq.

    Kerry also knocked back speculation that Obama’s announcement went against the advice of his national security team.

    “No decision is made until the president of the United States makes the decision,” he said.

    Kerry said Obama has the authority to launch retaliatory strikes with or without Congress' approval but stopped short of saying the president would do so if the House or Senate withholds support.

    In an apparent attempt to win congressional support, Kerry said the United States has received hair and blood samples from first responders indicating sarin was used in the attack in the Damascus suburbs.

    It was the first piece of specific physiological evidence cited by the administration, which previously cited only an unnamed nerve agent in the killings.

    A little more than a year ago, Obama declared that Assad's use of chemical weapons would be the "red line" in a conflict that he has steadfastly avoided. But Obama deferred any immediate action Saturday by announcing that he first would seek congressional authorization.

    Late Saturday, the White House sent Congress a draft resolution authorizing force against Syria to "deter, disrupt, prevent and degrade" the Assad regime's ability to use chemical weapons. It doesn't lay out a timeline for action or detail Obama's strategy.

    Lawmakers told Fox News after a briefing Sunday that Congress will likely revise the resolution before voting on it. Among their concerns was that the words "targeted" and "limited" were not included, though the president has repeatedly said that would be the scope of such an attack.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09/02/mccain-exits-wh-meeting-optimistic-but-saying-assad-forces-must-be-degraded/
    Last edited by JohnDoe2; 09-02-2013 at 07:02 PM.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    McCain: Vote against Syria strike would be 'catastrophic'

    Senator McCain said inaction by Congress would undermine U.S. credibility. Read More
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