By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Congressmen Spencer Bachus (R) from Vestavia and Robert Aderholt (R) from Haleyville have urged President Barack Obama to get authorization from Congress before any American attack on Syria.
On Tuesday, Representative Spencer Bachus wrote an open letter to the President. Bachus wrote, “I strongly urge you not to undertake any actions involving the use of our U.S. military without providing a full justification to Congress and the American people. It is important that such a presentation be made to Congress except in such cases when we are responding to aggression or an imminent threat against the United States and its interests.”
Representative Robert Aderholt said in a written statement Saturday, “The Rose Garden speech today is a realization by the president that he has not made his case on taking action in Syria to Congress and the American people. The one thing President Obama and I agree on at this point is that he should not go forward without Congressional authorization.”
Representative Bachus wrote to the President, “While we all decry the atrocities in Syria and wonder how any regime could treat its people in cruel and inhumane ways, the terms of any potential U.S. military intervention have not yet been appropriately defined or limited. Among the central issues that must be addressed when it comes to the deployment of U.S. military personnel and materiel are the nature of the mission, its achievability and probable results, and its relation to our national security interests. In my view, I have not yet seen this case being made with regard to Syria.”
Rep. Aderholt questioned President Obama’s Syrian strategy, “Who exactly are the ‘good guys’ in this conflict? And how is American involvement not the fuel for the fire the Muslim Brotherhood and extremist are trying to ignite throughout the region?”
Rep. Bachus wrote, “Both Article I of the Constitution and the War Powers Act invest Congress with considerable obligations when it comes to matters involving the use of military force. It is a legal and moral responsibility that I take most seriously and it is why I implore you not to undertake any precipitous action that would bypass our system of checks and balances.”
The Senate held hearings on Syria on Tuesday where Secretary of State John Kerry (D) asked his former Senate colleagues to support military action against the Hassad regime. At this point, some sort of military action in Syria seems inevitable even though some polls show that as many as 61% of the American people do not support unilateral American action in the Middleastern nation.
