@AdamSerwer A clever way for the neocons to have their war and eat it too.
— billmon (@billmon1) August 31, 2013
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TPM has the full text of the President’s remarks, for anyone who wants to parse it.
What I’ve been looking for — unsuccessfully, so far — is information on how this will affect the G20 meeting, which is due to start in Russia next Thursday, with or without Congressional approval. Shortly before the Rose Garden announcement, according to the AP, “Putin urged President Barack Obama on Saturday not to rush into a decision on striking Syria, but to consider whether strikes would help end the violence and be worth the civilian casualties they would inevitably cause.”
This was not gonna be the most cheerful G20 under any circumstances, but the intersection of finance and politics-by-other-means cranks the gruesome up to eleven. And it’s not like they can just reschedule this year’s bunfest, because there’s (always) too much going on with the global economy to look for a convenient plague outbreak or an Icelandic volcano erupting.
ETA: Count on Time‘s Swampland to live up to its title: “To make matters more complicated, Obama’s aides made clear that the President’s search for affirmation from Congress would not be binding.”
ETAA: From Politico:
The White House has sent Congress a draft resolution authorizing the use of American military force in Syria, with a narrow focus on interdicting chemical weapons — or their use — by the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The draft resolution, crafted by White House officials, does not set any deadline for U.S. action, but it is clearly written to assuage congressional concerns over open-ended American involvement in the two-year-old Syria civil war…