Limpan
User ID: 1474973 Sweden 09/18/2013 04:51 AM
Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Robert Gates and Leon Panetta say Obama should not have asked Congress to OK a strike. DALLAS (AP) — President Obama's first two defense secretaries on Tuesday night questioned his Syria strategy and said they would have told him not to seek Congress' approval for a strike on President Bashar Assad's forces.
Speaking at a forum in Dallas, Robert Gates and Leon Panetta disagreed on whether the United States should ultimately carry out a military strike in retaliation for a chemical attack that the U.S. says killed 1,400 people. But both men said Obama shouldn't have asked Congress to approve a strike, and both were skeptical and sometimes sarcastic about the current Russia-backed negotiations to have Syria turn over its chemical weapons.
Panetta said he supported a strike because Obama needed to enforce the "red line" he set over Syria's use of chemical weapons.
"When the president of the United States draws a red line, the credibility of this country is dependent on him backing up his word," Panetta said. [ link to www.usatoday.com] Last Edited by Limpan on 09/18/2013 04:52 AM |