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wednesday September 11, 2013
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Voters oppose Heinrich’s stance on Syria Protesters gather outside the senator’s ABQ off ice by Ardee Napolitano news@dailylobo.com @ArdeeTheJourno
Not forthefirsttime,Albuquerque residents raised placards and took to the streets against military intervention in Syria. This time, they rallied outside a United States senator’s office. Protesters gathered outside the office of New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich downtown early Tuesday morning to criticize Heinrich’s support for U.S. military intervention in the two-year Syrian civil war. Sayrah Namaste, a member of the American Friends Service Committee that organized the event, said Heinrich is misrepresenting New Mexicans by supporting military intervention. “He talked about looking at the eyes of his children with pride that he will go kill other children,” Namaste said. “It’s sickening to me. I’m a mother — I’d look at the eyes of my daughter. Since she’s been alive … she’s never known how it is to be at war. I see a child who wants us not to go to war.” Talks of military intervention in Syria started among the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council two weeks ago,
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Ardee Napolitano / Daily Lobo Jesus Cardiel, 3, strolls by a Tuesday morning demonstration outside the office of New Mexico Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich. Cardiel’s grandmother Karen Cathey, center right, and Tina Kachele, center left, were among those protesting Heinrich’s decision to support U.S. intervention in Syria’s civil war. Heinrich issued a letter Monday stating, “I can look my children in the eye and explain my positions with honesty, never having to explain why a vote was the result of politics or pressure. … I am taking a position that I believe is in line with those values.”
Brief address focuses on delayed Syria response David Espo, Julie Pace The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — United States President Barack Obama said in a nationally televised address Tuesday night that recent diplomatic steps offer “the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons” inside Syria without the use of outside force, but he also insisted the U.S. military will keep the pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “and be ready to respond” if other measures fail. Speaking from the East Room of the White House, Obama said he asked congressional leaders to postpone a vote on legislation he has been seeking to authorize the use of military force against Syria. Acknowledging the weariness the nation feels after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama said, “America is not the world’s policeman.” And yet, he added, “When with modest effort and risk we can stop children from being gassed to death and thereby make our own children safer over the long run, I believe we should act. That’s what makes America different. That’s what makes us exceptional.” “Our ideals and principles, as well as our national security, are at stake in Syria,” he declared. The speech capped a frenzied 10day stretch of events that began when Obama unexpectedly announced he was stepping back from a threatened military strike and first asking Congress
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to pass legislation authorizing the use of force against Assad. With public opinion polls consistently showing widespread opposition to American military intervention, the White House has struggled mightily to generate support among lawmakers — liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans alike — who have expressed fears of involvement in yet another war in the Middle East and have questioned whether U.S. national security interests are at stake in Syria. Obama had trouble, as well, building international support for a military attack designed to degrade Assad’s military. Suddenly, though, events took
“Our ideals and principles, as well as our national security, are at stake in Syria,” ~Barack Obama U.S. President another unexpected turn this week. First Russia and then Syria responded positively to a seemingly off-hand remark from Secretary of State John Kerry indicating that the crisis could be defused if Damascus agreed to put its chemical weapons under international control. Obama said he was sending Secretary of State John Kerry to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov on Thursday, and added, “I will continue my own discussion” with Russian President Vladimir Putin. At the same time, he said the United States and its allies would work with Russia and China to present a resolution to the United Nations Security Council “requiring Assad to give up his chemical weapons and to ultimately destroy them under international control.” In a speech that lasted 16 minutes, Obama recounted the events of the deadly chemical weapons attack on Aug. 21 that the United States blames on Assad. “When dictators commit atrocities, they depend upon the world to look the other way until these horrifying pictures fade from memory,” he said. “But these things happened. The facts cannot be denied.” The president said firmly that Assad’s alleged attack was “not only a violation of international law, it’s also a danger to our security.” If diplomacy now fails and the United States doesn’t act, he said, “the Assad regime will see no reason to stop using chemical weapons” and “other tyrants will have no reason to think twice about acquiring poison gas and using” it. Over time, he added, U.S. troops could face the threat of chemical warfare, and if fighting escapes Syria’s border, “these weapons could threaten allies like Turkey, Jordan and Israel.” The president sought to deal methodically with what he said were questions asked by lawmakers and
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citizens who took the time to write him with their concerns about U.S. military action. “I will not put American boots on the ground in Syria,” he said. “I will not pursue an open-ended action like Iraq or Afghanistan. I will not pursue a prolonged air campaign like Libya or Kosovo. “This would be a targeted strike to achieve a clear objective: deterring the use of chemical weapons and degrading Assad’s capabilities.” In the run-up to the president’s speech, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel pointedly told a congressional
hearing it was not time to let the threat of military retaliation lapse. “For this diplomatic option to have a chance at succeeding, the threat of a U.S. military action — the credible, real threat of U.S. military action — must continue,” he declared. At the same hearing, Kerry said any diplomacy “cannot be a process of delay. This cannot be a process of avoidance.” He later added that any agreement must include binding consequences if Syria fails to comply, and lawmakers moved to rewrite pending legislation along the same lines.
Evan Vucci, Pool / AP Photo President Barack Obama addressed the nation in a live televised speech from the East Room of the White House in Washington on Tuesday. President Obama blended the threat of military action with the hope of a diplomatic solution as he works to strip Syria of its chemical weapons.
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