WASHINGTON – The Obama administration moved closer to military action against Syria on Monday as Secretary of State John Kerry said the government of Bashar Assad used chemical weapons against its own people and cynically tried to cover it up.
The White House started reaching out to congressional leaders Monday, including House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Brendan Buck, a Boehner spokesman. “The speaker made clear that before any action is taken, there must be meaningful consultation with members of Congress, as well as clearly defined objectives and a broader strategy to achieve stability,” Buck said.
President Obama believes there must be “accountability” for those who used the weapons, Kerry said, calling the video from the attacks “gut wrenching.”
“The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders, by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity,” Kerry said. He said he watched the “gut wrenching” videos showing victims of the attack Aug. 21.
“As a father, I can’t get the image out of my head of a man who held up his dead child, wailing while chaos swirled around him,” Kerry said.
In Syria, members of a United Nations inspection team traveled through government- and rebel-held territory Monday to look for signs of chemical weapons use. One of the team’s vehicles was attacked by snipers.
The administration, White House spokesman Jay Carney said, has not decided on military action, although the Pentagon has presented a variety of military options to the president, including establishing a no-fly zone to training and advising the opposition. The most likely option, according to military experts, members of Congress and others, is using cruise missiles to strike Syrian targets.
Cruise missiles can be fired by surface ships or submarines and are the most likely response, said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
U.S. allies, such as Great Britain and France, spent Monday preparing for some kind of action.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, who like Kerry cut short his vacation because of the attack, spoke Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin to outline the evidence of chemical weapons use by Assad’s regime.
Cameron’s office said the British government would decide today whether the timetable for the international response means it will be necessary to recall lawmakers to Parliament before their scheduled return next week.
Great Britain and France led the way in calling for military action after the first reports of alleged chemical weapon use in Syria.
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