On the recordSeptember 11, 2013
As the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I want to associate myself with the remarks of President Obama last night in his speech to the Nation. I, like everyone else, hope that a diplomatic solution can be found and that somehow, between Russia, Syria and the United States, we can find common ground where Assad will not have his weapons of mass destruction and will be put under international control. But if this is possible, I believe it was only possible because there is a credible threat of U.S. military might, and that causes the equation of both the Russians and the Syrians to think about the United States. And that's why I believe so strongly that if this falls apart, we need to strike in Syria to let Assad know that it is unacceptable to gas the civilian population. It is indeed a war crime. Many of us today watched pictures of children foaming at the mouth and dying and shaking, and it's just something that will live with me for the rest of my life. So I think what the President's proposing is balanced; it's moderate. I will vote ``yes,'' and I urge my colleagues to do the same. ____________________
