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Obama gaining bi-partisan support on military strike against Syria
U.S. President Barack Obama addresses the media in the Cabinet Room of the White House, September 3, 2013, before a meeting with leaders of Congress to discuss the situation in Syria. Included in the picture with Obama, from left are, Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, National Security Adviser Susan Rice and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio. PHOTO/AP
U.S. President Barack Obama’s call for a military strike in Syria won significant momentum Tuesday, with leaders of both parties in Congress saying they are convinced that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons against his own people and that the United States should respond.
Republican House Speaker John Boehner emerged from a White House meeting and told reporters with Obama and other top lawmakers and said only the U.S. has the capability to stop Assad and warn others around the world that such actions will not be tolerated saying: “This is something that the United States, as a country, needs to do. I’m going to support the President’s call for action. I believe that my colleagues should support this call for action.”
Obama urged Congress to hold a prompt vote once it returns from holiday next week.
The American president also tried to assure the public that involvement in Syria will be a “limited, proportional step.”
“This is not Iraq, and this is not Afghanistan,” Obama said.
He met with top lawmakers hours before he leaves on a three-day trip to Europe, with a visit to Sweden and a G-20 summit in Russia.
The U.S. says it has proof that the Assad regime is behind sarin gas attacks that Washington claims killed at least 1,429 people, including more than 400 children. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which collects information from a network of anti-regime activists, says it has so far only been able to confirm 502 dead.
The Obama administration argues that the United States must exert global leadership in retaliating for what apparently was the deadliest use of chemical weapons anywhere over the past 25 years.
