奥巴马周二晚演讲，称推迟国会动武投票

演讲报道地址：
http://去掉www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-syria-push-scrambles-

hill-alliances/2013/09/10/0edc7ba8-197a-11e3-a628-

7e6dde8f889d_story.html


Obama’s Syria push scrambles Hill alliances

Video: During his address Tuesday night, President Obama said he is asking

Congress to postpone a vote on military intervention in Syria as he explores

diplomatic options with allies.
By Joel Achenbach, E-mail the writer
It’s a free-for-all on Capitol Hill. The usual polarization, the simple calculus

of R vs. D, has been blown up by the Syria issue. As President Obama seeks

authorization to strike the Syrian regime for its alleged use of chemical

weapons, he’s looking for support anywhere he can find it on the political

spectrum — even on the fringes.

He could use a “yes” vote, for example, from Rep. Trent Franks, the Arizona

Republican and tea party favorite. Here’s Franks, in a subterranean

corridor, emerging Monday night from a high-level briefing on Syria:

Where Congress stands on Syria

LIVELatest updates

“It just seems that everything the president touches in foreign policy, he

injects it with chaos and death.”

So, not an Obama fan. The “chaos and death” phrase is one Franks uses a

lot (“I know that sounds partisan, but the record reflects it,” he said, almost

apologetically). But he also abhors the Syrian regime. Conundrum: One

instinct says to hit Syria hard, and the other says to do the opposite of

whatever Obama wants. Franks said he’s “undeclared” on how he’ll vote.

Undecided? No, just undeclared. He wouldn’t even confirm that he’s made

up his mind.

This is an unusual Washington moment, completely unscripted, with few if

any precedents in recent memory. The situation changes by the hour. The

Russian overture — an offer to put Syria’s chemical weapons under

international control — further scrambled any sense of where this is leading.

Obama will address the nation in a prime-time broadcast Tuesday night in an

attempt to sell his Syria policy to a skeptical citizenry.

The only thing certain at this point is that a military strike against Syria

would arrive with the same element of surprise as Christmas.

Decisions on war and peace are always fraught with constitutional questions,

and the War Powers Resolution, passed in the 1970s after the Vietnam War,

gives Congress a certain degree of authority to approve or deny the

deployment of forces in war zones.

But Congress’s role is also circumscribed by that same resolution. The

president has up to 90 days to take military action without seeking

congressional approval, and there is always debate about when, precisely, the

clock starts ticking, and what, exactly, constitutes hostilities, said Douglas

Kriner, associate professor of political science at Boston University and author

of “After the Rubicon: Congress, Presidents and the Politics of Waging War.”

Kriner and other historians said they can’t think of a time when a president

went to Congress on a military authorization vote when the vote was very

much in doubt. Obama seemed poised to order airstrikes against the Syrian

government 10 days ago, but at the last moment, he shocked his aides and

many allies by kicking the question to the Hill, where the president has few

close friends among Democrats and where many Republican lawmakers are

loath to say yes to anything the president favors.

Barring a Russian breakthrough, or some other diplomatic solution, Congress

will have to do something it doesn’t like to do and hasn’t been good at

doing for a long time: Make a decision.

粗体字内容：奥黑把球踢给国会，也让小伙伴们惊呆，哈哈。

演讲报道地址：
http://去掉www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-syria-push-scrambles-

hill-alliances/2013/09/10/0edc7ba8-197a-11e3-a628-

7e6dde8f889d_story.html


Obama’s Syria push scrambles Hill alliances

Video: During his address Tuesday night, President Obama said he is asking

Congress to postpone a vote on military intervention in Syria as he explores

diplomatic options with allies.
By Joel Achenbach, E-mail the writer
It’s a free-for-all on Capitol Hill. The usual polarization, the simple calculus

of R vs. D, has been blown up by the Syria issue. As President Obama seeks

authorization to strike the Syrian regime for its alleged use of chemical

weapons, he’s looking for support anywhere he can find it on the political

spectrum — even on the fringes.

He could use a “yes” vote, for example, from Rep. Trent Franks, the Arizona

Republican and tea party favorite. Here’s Franks, in a subterranean

corridor, emerging Monday night from a high-level briefing on Syria:

Where Congress stands on Syria

LIVELatest updates

“It just seems that everything the president touches in foreign policy, he

injects it with chaos and death.”

So, not an Obama fan. The “chaos and death” phrase is one Franks uses a

lot (“I know that sounds partisan, but the record reflects it,” he said, almost

apologetically). But he also abhors the Syrian regime. Conundrum: One

instinct says to hit Syria hard, and the other says to do the opposite of

whatever Obama wants. Franks said he’s “undeclared” on how he’ll vote.

Undecided? No, just undeclared. He wouldn’t even confirm that he’s made

up his mind.

This is an unusual Washington moment, completely unscripted, with few if

any precedents in recent memory. The situation changes by the hour. The

Russian overture — an offer to put Syria’s chemical weapons under

international control — further scrambled any sense of where this is leading.

Obama will address the nation in a prime-time broadcast Tuesday night in an

attempt to sell his Syria policy to a skeptical citizenry.

The only thing certain at this point is that a military strike against Syria

would arrive with the same element of surprise as Christmas.

Decisions on war and peace are always fraught with constitutional questions,

and the War Powers Resolution, passed in the 1970s after the Vietnam War,

gives Congress a certain degree of authority to approve or deny the

deployment of forces in war zones.

But Congress’s role is also circumscribed by that same resolution. The

president has up to 90 days to take military action without seeking

congressional approval, and there is always debate about when, precisely, the

clock starts ticking, and what, exactly, constitutes hostilities, said Douglas

Kriner, associate professor of political science at Boston University and author

of “After the Rubicon: Congress, Presidents and the Politics of Waging War.”

Kriner and other historians said they can’t think of a time when a president

went to Congress on a military authorization vote when the vote was very

much in doubt. Obama seemed poised to order airstrikes against the Syrian

government 10 days ago, but at the last moment, he shocked his aides and

many allies by kicking the question to the Hill, where the president has few

close friends among Democrats and where many Republican lawmakers are

loath to say yes to anything the president favors.

Barring a Russian breakthrough, or some other diplomatic solution, Congress

will have to do something it doesn’t like to do and hasn’t been good at

doing for a long time: Make a decision.

粗体字内容：奥黑把球踢给国会，也让小伙伴们惊呆，哈哈。