Obama. Transcript. Syria. 10sep2013.

My fellow americans, tonight I want to talk to you about Syria, why it matters and where we go from here. Over the pasttwoyears, what began as a series of peaceful protests against the repressive regime ofBasharAlAssad has turned into a brutal civilwar. Over onehundredthousandpersons have been killed. Millions have fled the country. In that time, America has worked with allies to provide humanitarian support, to help the moderate opposition and to shape a political settlement. But I have resisted calls for military action because we cannot resolve someone else’s civilwar through force, particularly after onedecade of warinIraqAndAfghanistan. The situation profoundlychanged, though, on21aug., when Assad’sGovernment gassed to death over onethousandpersons, including hundreds of children. The images from this massacre are sickening, men, women, children lying in rows, killed by poison gas, others foaming at the mouth, gasping for breath, a father clutching his dead children, imploring them to get up and walk. On that terrible night, the world saw in gruesome detail the terrible nature of chemicalweapons and why the overwhelming majority of humanity has declared them off limits, a crime against humanity and a violation of the laws of war. This was not always the case. InWorldWarOne, American GIs were among the many thousands killed by deadly gas in the trenches of Europe. InWorldWarTwo, the nazis used gas to inflict the horror of the Holocaust. Because these weapons can kill on a massscale, with no distinction between soldier and infant, the civilised world has spent a century working to ban them. And in1997, theUnitedStatesSenate overwhelminglyapproved an internationalagreement prohibiting the use of chemicalweapons, now joined by 189Government that represent ninetyeightpercent of humanity. [Whatthefuck?] On21aug[2014], these basic rules were violated, along with our sense of commonhumanity. No one disputes that chemicalweapons were used inSyria. The world saw thousands of videos, cellphone pictures and social media accounts from the attack. And humanitarian organisations told stories of hospitals packed with people who had symptoms of poison gas. Moreover, we know theAssadregime was responsible. In the days leading up to21aug., we know that Assad’schemicalweaponspersonnel prepared for an attack near an area they where they mix saringas. They distributed gasmasks to their troops. Then they fired rockets from a regimecontrolled area into elevenneighbourhoods that the regime has been trying to wipe clear of oppositionforces. Shortlyafter those rockets landed, the gas spread, and hospitals filled with the dying and the wounded. We know seniorfigures in Assad’s military machine reviewed the results of the attack. And the regime increased their shelling of thesameneighborhoods in the days that followed. We’ve also studied samples of blood and hair from people at the site that tested positive for sarin. When dictators commit atrocities, they depend upon the world to look the other day until those horrifying pictures fade from memory. [Bitterlyironic.] But these things happened. The facts cannot be denied. The question now is what theUnitedStatesOfAmerica and the internationalcommunity is prepared to do about it, because what happened to those people, to those children, is not only a violation ofInternationalLaw, it’s also a danger to our security. Let me explain why. If we fail to act, theAssadregime will see no reason to stop using chemicalweapons. As the ban against these weapons erodes, other tyrants will have no reason to thinktwice about acquiring poison gas and using them. Over time, our troops would again face the prospect of chemicalwarfare on the battlefield, and it could be easier for terrorist organisations to obtain these weapons and to use them to attack civilians. If fighting spills beyond Syria’s borders, these weapons could threaten allies like Turkey, Jordan and Israel. And onefailure to stand against the use of chemicalweapons would weaken prohibitions against other weaponsofmassdestruction and emboldenAssad’sally, Iran, which must decide whether to ignoreInternationalLaw by building a nuclearweapon or to take a morepeaceful path. This is not a world we should accept. This is what’s at stake. And that is why, after careful deliberation, I determined that it is in the nationalsecurityinterests of theUnitedStates to respond to theAssadregime’suseofchemicalweapons through a targeted military strike. The purpose of this strike would be to deterAssad from using chemicalweapons, to degrade his regime’sability to use them and to make clear to the world that we will not tolerate their use. That’s my judgment asCommanderInChief. But I’m also thePresident of the world’s oldest constitutionalDemocracy. So even though I possessed the authority to order military strikes, I believed it was right, in the absence of a direct or imminent threat to our security, to take this debate toCongress. I believe ourDemocracy is stronger when thePresident acts with the support ofCongress, and I believe that America acts moreeffectively abroad when we stand together. This is especiallytrue after onedecade that put moreandmorewarmakingpower in the hands of thePresident, and moreandmoreburdens on the shoulders of our troops, while sidelining the people’srepresentatives from the critical decisions about when we use force. Now, I know that after the terrible toll of-Iraq and -Afghanistan, the idea of any military action, no matter how limited, is not going to be popular. After all, I’ve spent fourandahalfyears working to end wars, not to start them. Our troops are out ofIraq, our troops are coming home fromAfghanistan, and I know americans want all of us inWashington[DC], especially me, to concentrate on the task of building our nation here at home, putting people back to work, educating our kids, growing our middle class. It’s no wonder, then, that you’re asking hard questions. So let me answer some of themostimportant questions that I’ve heard from members ofCongress and that I’ve read in letters that you’ve sent to me. First, many of you have asked, Won’t this put us on a slippery slope to another war? Oneman wrote to me that we are still recovering from our involvement in Iraq. A veteran put it more bluntly, This nation is sick and tired of war. My answer is simple. I will not put american boots on the ground inSyria. I will not pursue an openended action like-Iraq or -Afghanistan. I will not pursue a prolonged aircampaign like-Libya or -Kosovo. This would be a targeted strike to achieve a clear objective, Deterring the use of chemicalweapons and degradingAssad’scapabilities. Others have asked whether it’s worth acting if we don’t take out Assad. As some members ofCongress have said, there’s no point in simply doing a [“]pinprickstrike[“] inSyria. Let me make something clear,  TheUnitedStatesmilitary doesn’t do pinpricks. Even a limited strike will send a message toAssad that no other nation can deliver. I don’t think we should remove another dictator with force. We learned fromIraq that doing so makes us responsible for all that comes next. But a targeted strike can makeAssad or any other dictator thinktwice before using chemicalweapons. Other questions involve the dangers of retaliation. We don’t dismiss any threats, but theAssadregime does not have the ability to seriouslythreaten our military. Any other, any other retaliation they might seek is in line with threats that we face everyday. Neither Assad nor his allies have any interest in escalation that would lead to his demise. And our ally, Israel, can defend itself with overwhelming force, as well as the unshakable support of theUnitedStatesOfAmerica. Many of you have asked a broader question, Why should we get involved at all in a place that’s so complicated and where, as oneperson wrote to me, those who come after Assad may be enemies ofHumanRights? It’s true that some of Assad’sopponents are extremists. But alQaida will onlydraw strength in a morechaoticSyria if people there see the world doing nothing to prevent innocent civilians from being gassed to death. The majority of the syrian people and the syrian opposition we work with just want to live in peace, with dignity and freedom. And the day after any military action, we would redouble our efforts to achieve a political solution that strengthens those who reject the forces of tyranny and extremism. Finally, many of you have asked, why not leave this to other countries or seek solutions short of force? And several people wrote to me, we should not be the world’spoliceman. I agree. And I have a deeplyheld preference for peaceful solutions. Over the last two years my administration has tried diplomacy and sanctions, warnings and negotiations. But chemicalweapons were stillused by theAssadregime. However, over the last few days we’ve seen some encouraging signs in part because of the credible threat ofUSmilitaryaction as well as constructive talks that I had withPresidentPutin. The russianGovernment has indicated a willingness to join with the internationalcommunity in pushingAssad to give up his chemicalweapons. TheAssadregime has now admitted that it has these weapons and even said they’d join the chemicalweaponsconvention, which prohibits their use. It’s tooearly to tell whether this offer will succeed, and any agreement must verify that theAssadregime keeps its commitments. But this initiative has the potential to remove the threat of chemicalweapons without the use of force, particularly because Russia is one of Assad’s strongest allies. I have therefore asked the leaders ofCongress to postpone a vote to authorise the use of force while we pursue this diplomatic path. I’m sendingSecretaryOfStateJohnKerry to met his russian counterpart on thursday, and I will continue my own discussions withPresidentPutin. I’ve spoken to the leaders of two of our closest allies, France and theUnitedKingdom. And we will work together in consultation with-Russia and -China to put forward a resolution at theUNSecurityCouncil requiringAssad to give up his chemicalweapons and to ultimately destroy them under internationalcontrol. We’ll alsogive UNinspectors the opportunity to report their findings about what happened on 21aug. And we will continue to rally support from allies, fromEurope to theAmericas, fromAsia to theMiddleEast who agree on the need for action. Meanwhile, I’ve ordered our military to maintain their current posture, to keep the pressure onAssad and to be in a position to respond if diplomacy fails. And tonight I give thanks again to our military and their families for their incredible strength and sacrifices. My fellow americans, for nearlysevendecades, theUnitedStates has been the anchor of globalsecurity. This has meant doing more than forging internationalagreements. It has meant enforcing them. The burdens of leadership are oftenheavy, but the world’s a betterplace because we have borne them. And so to my friends on the right, I ask you to reconcile your commitment to america’s military might with a failure to act when a cause is so plainlyJust. To my friends on the left, I ask you to reconcile your belief in freedom and dignity for all people with those images of children writhing in pain and going still on a cold hospital floor, for sometimes resolutions and statements of condemnation are simplynotenough. Indeed, I’d ask everymember ofCongress, and those of you watching at home tonight, to view those videos of the attack, and then ask, What kind of world will we live in if theUnitedStatesOfAmerica sees a dictator brazenlyviolateInternationalLaw with poisongas and we choose to look the other way? FranklinRoosevelt once said our national determination to keep free of foreign wars and foreign entanglements cannot prevent us from feeling deep concern when ideals and principles that we have cherished are challenged. [FuckRoosevelt.] Our ideals and principles, as well as our nationalsecurity, are at stake inSyria, along with our leadership of a world where we seek to ensure that the worst weapons will never be used. [Imperialism.] America is not the world’s policeman. Terrible things happen across the globe, and it is beyond our means to right every wrong. But when, with modest-effort and -risk, we can stop children from being gassed to death and thereby make our own children safer over the long run, I believe we should act. That’s what makesAmerica different. That’s what makes us exceptional. With humility, but with resolve, let us never lose sight of that essential truth. Thank you. God bless you, and god bless theUnitedStatesOfAmerica.