Or maybe not. I have to wonder if Obama is hoping Congress will bail him out by refusing to provide the authorization sought:
President Obama announced Saturday that he has concluded the United
States should take military action against Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad and his regime for using chemical weapons on civilians, but
will first seek authorization from Congress.
My suspicions regarding this are mostly aroused by the fact that historically, most military actions haven’t waited on Congressional summer vacations.
UPDATE: Oops. It turns out the rebels are even admitting that they were responsible for the chemical weapons attack:
“In a report that is sure to be considered blockbuster news, the
rebels told Dale Gavlak, a reporter who has written for the Associated
Press, NPR and BBC, they are responsible for the chemical attack last week.
“Gavlak is a Middle Eastern journalist who filed the report about the
rebels claiming responsibility on the Mint Press News website, which is
affiliated with AP. In that report allegedly the rebels told him the chemical attack was a result of mishandling chemical weapons….
“Gavlak reports he was told by rebels that the gas “attack” was the
result of rebels mishandling the chemical weapons they acquired from the
Saudis. He says in the Mint Press report the following:
“”They didn’t tell us what these arms were or how to use them,”
complained a female fighter named ‘K.’ “We didn’t know they were
chemical weapons. We never imagined they were chemical weapons.””
This tends to raise an obvious question: from whom did the Saudis obtain the chemical weapons?