President Obama turns to Congress to OK strike against Syria maybe a month from now

I think President Obama is trying to walk back his decision to attack Syria without looking like he’s walking it back.  Putting the blame on congress gives him an out especially if he could lay it on Republicans.    

Fox News reports President Obama announced Saturday that he has concluded the United States should take military action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his regime for using chemical weapons on civilians, but will first seek authorization from Congress.

“This menace must be confronted,” Obama said of the Assad regime’s alleged strike, speaking from the Rose Garden.

The announcement, though, sets up a timetable for debate that could drag on for weeks.

Obama said he would wait for Congress to return from recess; members are not scheduled to return until Sept. 9. Yet the president claimed any military response to Syria is “not time sensitive” and would be effective even one month from now.

The decision to seek congressional authorization is a departure from the administration’s decision to intervene in Libya in 2011. Though the president said he thinks he has the authority to order a military strike, he made clear he will ask Congress to vote on the issue.

“I have decided that the United States should take military action against Syrian regime targets,” the president said. He added: “I’m also mindful that I’m president of the world’s oldest constitutional democracy.”

The administration will now proceed with a series of briefings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill lasting through the weekend, as it tries to build its case for military intervention. Obama indicated he will not wait for either approval from the U.N. Security Council or the conclusion of U.N. inspectors’ investigation into the Syria attack.

Obama said a U.S. strike, which is expected to be an offshore missile attack, would not include U.S. soldiers in Syria and would be limited in scope.

After failing to win support from the United Nations and the British public for military action in Syria, the Obama administration is just now trying what some lawmakers say it should have been doing from the beginning -- making the case to the American people.

More here

If the air strike on Syria is not time sensitive how many more people will die during that time?  If the strike can wait a month why not wait two months or three?  In the interim Syria has more time to hide their chemical stock pile.  And even if air strikes destroys Asaad’s delivery system, Russia and China can replace them.  What happens then?