Wednesday’s hearing in the House Foreign Affairs Committee illustrated that the authorization of military action in Syria is turning out to be a tough sell in the House of Representatives. House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Xavier Becerra of California said Thursday he will only approve fighting in Syria “if it’s very targeted, if it’s limited.”
The maximum time frame that Becerra wants to see against Syria is a 60-day strike to be used as deterrence. He told Jansing & Co.on Thursday that he was aware, however, that the American people are hesitant about intervention because of Iraq.
“We don’t want to see another Iraq. Americans don’t want to see the indiscriminate use of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons, but they also don’t want to see another Iraq,” Becerra said. “And that’s the difficulty when a country, when a government gets us into a war that we shouldn’t have gotten into.”
The Obama administration will not rally support for a military strike in Syria from Congress if the discussion focuses on a prolonged strike to tip the balance on the ground, the House Democrat said. Becerra emphasized that in order to get congressional authorization, President Obama must “make it clear that he’s going to limit this to be strategic and focused on the issue of the use of weapons of mass destruction.” Watch analysis from the Washington Post’s EJ Dionne and The Atlantic’s Phillip Bump above.
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