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“Obama Says He Has 'Legal Authority' to Strike Syria”
by Arutz Sheva   
September 10th, 2014
Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Flash 90

US President Barack Obama says he has the "legal authority" to order US airstrikes on Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) forces in Syria, according to sources present at a dinner with foreign policy experts at the White House on Monday.

Obama "thinks he has the legal authority he needs” to expand action in Iraq and Syria under the War Powers Act, according to Jane Harman, the president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, who told the Washington Post about the dinner.

Another attendee of the dinner, former undersecretary of defense for policy Michèle Flournoy, told the paper Obama said he is committed to striking IS "wherever their strategic targets are."

It is worth noting that members of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime have warned America not to conduct strikes in their territory without permission, a condition the US has said it will not agree to.

A move to approve airstrikes in Syria would be a significant escalation for Obama, who critics say has generally followed a policy of disengagement in the Middle East; just last Thursday Obama let slip that he has "no strategy" to combat IS in Syria.

Along those lines, Senator Robert Portman (R-OH) recently reproached Obama by saying "we are ‘leading from behind,’ to use the president’s words. By not leading, we are making it more difficult and more costly."

Apparently the murder of a second US journalist by IS in Syria - Steven Sotloff, whose family has blamed the US government for letting him down - has been enough to spur Obama into trying to formulate a more active policy approach, which he is to announce in a Wednesday night address.

That speech will come on the day in which US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Baghdad for an unannounced visit which he will use to build a regional coalition against IS.

If Obama gives the green light to an increased military campaign in Iraq and Syria, such a move would take several years and come at a great financial cost to America in training Iraqi military forces and regional fighters, according to participants at the Monday dinner.

While Obama has authorized numerous airstrikes against IS in Iraq over the last month, he has also vowed not to send in US soldiers on the ground.

Americans increasingly view IS as a threat and support airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, according to a Washington Post and ABC joint poll this week. That poll found 71% support for strikes in Iraq, and 65% support for strikes in Syria; it also found rising disapproval with Obama's management.

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