Read the transcript of Obama’s speech on Syria
PRESIDENT OBAMA: My fellow Americans, tonight I want to talk to you about Syria, why it matters and where we go from here.
Over the past two years, what began as a series of peaceful protests against the oppressive regime of Bashar al-Assad has turned into a brutal civil war. Over 100,000 people have been killed. Millions have fled the country. In that time, America’s worked with allies to provide humanitarian support, to help the moderate opposition, and to shape a political settlement, but I have resisted calls for military action because we cannot resolve someone else’s civil war through force, particularly after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The situation profoundly changed, though, on August 21st, when Assad’s government gassed to death over 1,000 people, including hundreds of children. The images from this massacre are sickening: men, women, children lying in rows, killed by poison gas, others foaming at the mouth, gasping for breath, a father clutching his dead children, imploring them to get up and walk.
On that terrible night, the world saw in gruesome detail the terrible nature of chemical weapons and why the overwhelming majority of humanity has declared them off-limits, a crime against humanity and a violation of the laws of war.
This was not always the case. In World War I, American G.I.s were among the many thousands killed by deadly gas in the trenches of Europe. In World War II, the Nazis used gas to inflict the horror of the Holocaust. Because these weapons can kill on a mass scale, with no distinction between soldier and infant, the civilized world has spent a century working to ban them. And in 1997, the United States Senate overwhelmingly approved an international agreement prohibiting the use of chemical weapons, now joined by 189 governments that represent 98 percent of humanity.
On August 21st, these basic rules were violated, along with our sense of common humanity. No one disputes that chemical weapons were used in Syria. The world saw thousands of videos, cell phone pictures, and social media accounts from the attack, and humanitarian organizations told stories of hospitals packed with people who had symptoms of poison gas.
Moreover, we know the Assad regime was responsible. In the days leading up to August 21st, we know that Assad’s chemical weapons personnel prepared for an attack near an area where they mix sarin gas. They distributed gas masks to their troops. Then they fired rockets from a regime-controlled area into 11 neighborhoods that the regime has been trying to wipe clear of opposition forces. Shortly after those rockets landed, the gas spread, and hospitals filled with the dying and the wounded.
We know senior figures in Assad’s military machine reviewed the results of the attack and the regime increased their shelling of the same neighborhoods in the days that followed. We’ve also studied samples of blood and hair from people at the site that tested positive for sarin.
Wendell Pierce ✔ @WendellPierce
Diplomacy from a position of strength
8:27 PM – 10 Sep 2013
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LOL Stuck in the Middle with you. Love it!
OK CONGRESS; BALL’S IN YOUR COURT!
President Obama: “I have ordered our military to maintain their current posture to keep the pressure on Assad, and to be in a position to respond.”
HELLO! Don’t fuck with POTUS.
Absolutely fantastic speech!
It is now in Congress’s hands!
President Obama: “The U.S. military doesn’t do pin pricks. Even a limited strike will send a message to Assad that no other nation can deliver.”
Now put that in your peace pipe and SMOKE IT!
SNAP!
Hope there will be a transcript of his speech.
WaPo will have it, for sure. I’ll post it when available.
Thanks, Ametia!
President Obama : ‘What happened to those people, those children .. is a danger to our security’
Targeted strikes, NO BOOTS ON THE GROUND to deter action of the USE of chemicals
USA does not do pin pricks
President Obama: “It is in the national security interests of the United States to respond to the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons.”
Spell it out PBO. After decades of an Imperalistic presidency……parphrasing. I’m calling on Congress
The President is giving us the HISTORY. Building the foundation, without the mealy-mouthed talking points of the media.
Yes, he is.
And he is addressing all that needs to be address.
Good he is putting it in the hands of Congress who Constitutionally is the real decider.
LOL Yes he is. They screamed for the right to VOTE, and he answered their screams!
The speech will last 15 minutes.
Bring it, Mr. President!
I am glad that the WH did not release the speech beforehand. Make the clowns in the MSM LISTEN to the President
DITTO. The clowns have been trying to PRE-EMPT POTUS on Syria for weeks now.
I hope he comes out tonight, slams these fuckers with TRUTH, and DROP THE MIC!
Me too!
Explore this page to learn more about President Obama’s response to the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons in Syria and get the latest news from the White House about the situation.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/foreign-policy/syria?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=email237-text1&utm_campaign=syria
I am sooooo ready.
Thanks for the reminder.
Getting tubs of POPCORN ready. I know POTUS will deliver.
Will do!