House Vote on Syria: Obama Could Lose Big

[barfbag]

Good we don't want a war. If he really wants them to support him then he needs to go around the country and get people riled up at defending the U.S. from another terrorist attack. This would put pressure on congress to support him or face losing next year.

[barfbag]

I'm sure I read somewhere that Obama is planning to initiate strikes anyway, so long as the Senate approves the move. He's just 'allowing Congress to have their say'.

If he does that I hope the Congress will go on to say "You're impeached!"

They would have no grounds for doing so, but I know the teabaggers have been wanting to since they were inaugurated in 2011, so I'm sure they'll try.

If Obama goes to war without congressional approval, then he should be removed from office. There's no partisan way about it.

[barfbag]

I can't imagine Obama is going to do this without the support of Congress having asked for it.  Not without NATO or the UNSC with him either.  He just seems to have really misjudged this.  Now Obama is out on a ledge by himself, and has just spent the past few weeks pushing Russia into being even more supportive of Syria in anticipation of a possible attack.  We should have focused on working with others to pressure Russia to stop supporting the regime, others to stop supporting Al-Nusra, and back a diplomatic solution to end civil war. We might be getting somewhere instead of just trying to do something on chemical weapons that won't really solve the larger issue but all that's more difficult now.  It's a real shame.

We shouldn't go it alone either. Bombing Syria won't do anything.

[barfbag]

Obama should have taken a leaf from his predecessor's book and found a bunch of made-up intel to whip up the people and Congress into a frenzy.  Tell 'em Assad is threatening to pour sarin into our own water supply or something, and our troops will be in Damascus before you know it.

That would be lying. Obama needs to rally people to wave the flag and get us riled up to defeat evildoers. No one misunderestimates the U.S.

[barfbag]

People understand that this is a resolution, and resolutions are powerless, right?

     Strictly speaking, yes. In reality, you don't get on anyone's good side by calling for a resolution and then ignoring it if you don't get the answer you want. Obama would be rather foolish to go ahead without Congressional approval.

He would be but he opened his mouth too soon. Obama gives lots of speeches and gives no resolutions.

[barfbag]

Obama should have taken a leaf from his predecessor's book and found a bunch of made-up intel to whip up the people and Congress into a frenzy.  Tell 'em Assad is threatening to pour sarin into our own water supply or something, and our troops will be in Damascus before you know it.

Surely this must be an attempt at satire!

The problem is that ten years after Dubya got us into a pointless war with Iraq the Presidency has yet to regain the respect that it once had.

I don't see it as a turning point.