Making his case for Syrian airstrikes at the close of the two-day G-20 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, President Obama said that he would address the American people from the White House Tuesday, ahead of a congressional vote authorizing the use of force.
He acknowledged the war-weariness of the American public after prolonged conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, saying “I was elected to end wars, not start them.”
“We have to make hard choices if we’re going to stand up for things we believe in, and I think this is one of those times,” Obama said.
U.S. intelligence has presented evidence that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons against civilians in an Aug. 21 attack, killing nearly 1,500 people including more than 400 children. According to the U.N., more than 100,000 people have been killed in the country’s 30-month-old civil war. Watch President Obama’s full address at the close of the G-20 summit below:
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