Could Obama Bomb Syria on 9/11?

As the draft resolution over the use of military force in Syria is debated, it’s conceivable that both sides of Congress could vote early next week. That would leave President Barack Obama with the dilemma of whether to strike on September 11, which falls on next Wednesday.

Choosing the infamous date for a military strike would send a powerful message, rife with symbolism.

Would Obama want to link action against President Bashar Assad’s forces with the date in which nearly 3,000 Americans were killed?

After terrorist hijackers crashed airliners into New York's World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 (Photo: Robert Giroux/Getty Images)

On the one hand, dealing a punishing strike to a brutal dictator on that date could be viewed as fitting. On the other hand, does President Obama wish to be seen as carrying on the Bush legacy of fighting the “War on Terror?” (Or “Overseas Contingency Operation” as the Obama administration re-named it shortly after inauguration in early 2009.)

There would also be an irony in striking on that date. After 9/11, the U.S. and its allies went after Al Qaeda and its Taliban backers.

On Tuesday, President Obama took pains to differentiate his plan from past military forays. “This is not Iraq and this is not Afghanistan,” he said.

That’s true not only because the president wants to avoid any U.S. “boots on the ground," but by attacking government military forces aligned with Assad, the U.S. would seemingly be aligning itself in a way with Al Qaeda-linked rebels like the Al Nusra Front which strives to turn Syria into a sharia state. If the enemy of my enemy is my friend, what does that say about the American relationship with Al Qaeda?

Lest we forget, September 11 marks not only the terrorist attacks of 2001, it’s also the day Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were murdered in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya in 2012.

NBC is calling the potential 9/11 timing “tricky.”

The Jewish Press ran a column which examined the possibility of a strike on the 12th anniversary of the notorious terrorist attacks.

“Exploiting the 9/11 date would arouse emotions, patriotism and the ever-present dream of returning America as the feared and fearless leader of the Free World,” writes Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu.

“All polls show that America does not want to get involved in another war, especially one that is being fought by a madman against an assortment of equally deranged murderers who have made the world forget what the Arab Spring rebellion in Syria was all about more than two years ago,” he wrote.

“Obama, right or wrong, has the opportunity to regain the stage for America to show the world that the sun has not yet sets on its role as the leader of the Free World and the supposed guardian of mankind,” he added.

So if it’s not on September 11, what is the significance behind other dates Obama could choose to launch the attack if Congress approves?

In 1814, September 13 was reportedly the day Francis Scott Key wrote the poem that would eventually become the Star Spangled Banner.

The United Nations General Assembly meeting opens on Sept. 17 this year.  That’s also a meaningful date in American history. On September 17, 1862, Confederate and Union troops engaged in the Battle of Antietam (Battle of Sharpsburg), marking the bloodiest one day battle in U.S. history, with more than 22,000 casualties.

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