President Obama said that with frontline at PBS up to talk about
why it appears that we will be headed to Damascus personal I have not made a
decision
I have gotten options from
our military I had extensive discussions with my national security team
what I've also concluded is that direct military
engagement involvement in a civil war in Syria would not help the situation on
the ground I
and so we've been very restrained up but why also said
was that if the Assad regime
use chemical weapons on his own people
that that would change sum up our calculations
so now that's PBS Newshour
newshour obviously and so what their president is saying there
is as usual I i have made a decision yet but obviously we're gonna go
and I before I was against it but now I'm in favor because they use chemical
weapons now look
it is fair to say the chemical weapons did change the equation
so it's okay to just a new fax on the ground so what else is a present
we have concluded that a the Syrian
government in fact carries out and if that's so and the need to be
international consequences
now he says we have concluded that the Syrian government
has carried this out holds is not necessarily I want to get to that in a
second
while more from the present again I'm not made a decision but I think it's
important
that a if in fact we
make a choice to
a have repercussions for the use of chemical weapons
than the Assad regime which is involved in a civil war
trying to protect itself we love received
a a pretty strong signal that in fact a better not do it again
better not do it again so and that's that
essence of the goal here which is the Senate signal not just to the side
regime with the whole world
you not allowed to use weapons of mass destruction like chemical weapons
if you do there's going to be consequences now here's all the problems
it appears that we're not absolutely clear that the side regime
did use chemical weapons now their reports out that it's possible a rebel
group could have taken control chemical weapons swords at some point so to say
they did
just to say that it is possible it is not been ruled out
now also so we have intercepted a call buddy
a about these a chemical weapons from the regime side
but that call was low-level officers
it did not respect the senior low-level military officers
or to side so that's another important question so now you're a member of
course when we took military action in the Middle East last time
without enough evidence I didn't turn out that well well now we have
intelligence officials
telling the papers that is quote it's not a slam dunk
ol now
here's more from the Associated Press while Secretary of State John Kerry said
Monday
that it was undeniable a chemical weapons attack had occurred and that it
was carried out by the Syrian military
US intelligence officials are not so certain that the suspected chemical
attack
was carried out on Assad's orders or even completely sure was carried out
by government forces hoops
thats US intelligence officials
were not at all sure I
look it's embarrassing to say indicate
like we're gonna go and then to put the brakes on you know it's more
embarrassing
if we go and it turns out it was in the side regime that use chemical weapons
and by the way the rebels use the chemical weapons would we then have to
turn around and bomb them
those are very very difficult questions
let's get all the evidence before we act please I'm not sure that's the way it's
gonna go down
now here secretary see John Kerry he said we know that the Syrian regime
I maintains custody these chemical weapons we know that the Syrian regime
has the capacity to do this with rockets
we know that the regime has been determined to clear the opposition from
those very places where the attacks took place
I read that quote I thought I'll we don't have it
we don't have evidence this sounds like iraq all over again
we know the saddam hussein at some point have the capacity for weapons of mass
destruction
and we know the saddam hussein is a really bad guy would mind using them
we worry know what John Kerry said their
indicated that aside actually use the weapons we know he has a capacity we
know he'd like to
why by the opposition forces and so far the US government has not presented
any evidence not only not to the public but to the United Nations
or even a congress saying what evidence we have
that Assad's regime in this last attack
did the attack directly
that's a big big problem now
a Mary hearth us a departing Department deputy spokesperson also said this quote
we ultimately of course whole President Assad responsible
for the use of chemical weapons by his regime against his own people
regardless aware the commanding control lives
there was another big red flag for me in other words we don't know who ordered it
we don't know where command-and-control eyes but we're just
generally get a say it was the son Richie
I'm not sure that's good enough