Before going into a meeting with congressional leaders Tuesday morning, President Barack Obama expressed confidence he would get congressional approval to strike Syria, and again promised it wouldn't be another Iraq or Afghanistan.
President Barack Obama, flanked by House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, left, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks to media in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013, before a meeting with members of Congress to discuss the situation in Syria.Credit: AP
“The key point I want to emphasize to the American people, the military plan developed by the Joint Chiefs is appropriate, is proportional, it is limited it does not involve boots on the ground,” the president said from the Cabinet Room before the meeting.
“This is not Iraq and this is not Afghanistan.”
The president again asserted that U.S. intelligence has high certainty Syrian dictator Bashar Assad's regime
used chemical weapons in the killing of 1,400 people. He said the mission would be to weaken Assad and send a message to other regimes.
Obama said. “It gives us the ability to degrade Assad's capabilities when it comes to chemical weapons.”
A reported asked Obama if he was confident he would get a vote in favor of the strike in Congress, to which the president responded, “I am.”
