Syrian rebel aid clears Congress

Senate takes aim at Islamic State 78-22; Obama cheers unity

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014, during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the US strategy to defeat the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014, during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the US strategy to defeat the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

WASHINGTON -- Congress cleared the way Thursday for the U.S. military to train and equip Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State extremist group, ratifying a strategy President Barack Obama outlined last week.



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The 78-22 Senate vote sent Obama legislation that also provides funding for the government after the end of the budget year Sept. 30, eliminating any threat of a shutdown. The House approved the bill Wednesday.

In an appearance at the White House soon after the vote, Obama said he was pleased that a majority of both Republicans and Democrats had supported the legislation.

"I believe we're strongest as a nation when the president and Congress work together," he said.

Noting the killing of two Americans by the Islamic State group, he said that "as Americans we do not give in to fear" and would not be put off by such brutal tactics.

In the Senate, 44 Democrats, 33 Republicans and one independent voted for the bill, while nine Democrats, 12 Republicans and one independent opposed it.

"Intervention that destabilizes the Middle East is a mistake. And yet, here we are again, wading into a civil war," said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who is considering a run for president in 2016.

Sen. Mark Begich, an Alaska Democrat in a difficult re-election campaign, said, "I disagree with my president" on the wisdom of having the U.S. military become involved.

"It is time for the Arab countries to ... get over their regional differences" and be more aggressive in the fight against terrorists, he said.

For a second straight day, the administration dispatched top-ranking officials to reassure lawmakers -- and the public -- that no U.S. ground combat operation was in the offing. Obama made the same promise in an address to the nation eight days earlier laying out his new policy.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told one House committee Thursday that Obama "is not going to order American combat ground forces into that area."

Appearing before a different panel, Secretary of State John Kerry said the administration understands the danger of a "slippery slope." The term was widely used a half-century ago as the United States slid ever deeper into a Vietnam war that eventually left more than 50,000 U.S. troops dead.

Obama's general plan is to have U.S. troops train Syrian rebels at camps in Saudi Arabia, a process that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, said could take a year.

Additionally, the president has said he will use existing authority to have the Pentagon deploy airstrikes against Islamic fighters in Syria as well as in Iraq. Hagel said the president received a detailed plan for operations in Syria during a visit Wednesday to U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., and was reviewing it.

The U.S. has been conducting airstrikes against Islamic State fighters in Iraq since early August. France on Thursday also agreed to carry out airstrikes requested by Iraq to bolster its fight against the Islamic State, President Francois Hollande said.

Hollande stressed that France wouldn't go beyond airstrikes in support of the Iraqi military or Kurdish forces that are fighting the extremists and wouldn't attack targets in Syria.

Obama last week authorized strikes against the group in Syria, and his administration is trying to cobble together an international coalition to go after the group. The stepped up action came after the extremists released videos showing the beheadings of two American journalists and a British aid worker in Syria.

The Islamic State on Thursday released another video showing a British journalist who said he is a prisoner of the extremists.

In a the three-minute video, John Cantlie, a photojournalist, said he worked for publications including The Sunday Times, The Sun and The Sunday Telegraph and went in November 2012 to Syria, where he was captured by the Islamic State group.

The British government declined to comment on the video Thursday, but British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the Islamic State "is not just a threat to the stability of the Middle East region but to all of us in our homelands."

Bipartisan support

In Washington, the leaders of both political parties supported the Senate legislation.

Asked about approving Obama's plan in the wake of the war in Iraq, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said, "Iraq was a mistake. I was misled and I voted wrong. But this is not Iraq, this is a totally different thing."

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky also favored the legislation, yet said it must be followed by a top-to-bottom review of the administration's global military strategy.

Rank-and-file Senate liberals split.

Both lawmakers from Kerry's Massachusetts, Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, opposed the bill.

But Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said Obama proposed a moderate, middle course between doing nothing in response to a terrorist threat and refighting the Iraq war. "Every civilized person has to stand up against this," she said.

While Democrats expressed fears that the legislation could lead the nation back into a war, some Republicans were skeptical that Obama's strategy was strong enough to prevail.

As a result, the legislation provided a narrow grant of authority that will expire Dec. 11. It specifically stops short of approving the deployment of U.S. forces "into hostilities or into situations where hostilities are clearly indicated by the circumstances."

The expiration date means Congress will return to the issue in a postelection session scheduled for mid-November.

Administration officials must report to Congress on the progress of the strategy and how it fits into a larger plan to combat the Islamic State. The measure contains language that prevents Obama from expanding the training strategy into a battle that involves U.S. troops without congressional approval.

The provision doesn't include any of the $500 million Obama has requested, though it allows the Pentagon to submit requests to Congress to redirect money and allows the State Department to accept foreign contributions.

Some lawmakers questioned the wisdom of quickly approving the legislation before adjourning until after the election.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said, "I don't think we should adjourn and go home with matters of war and peace in front of us."

"And here, the Congress of the United States is going to adjourn in the middle of September?" Nelson said on the Senate floor. "And, as I calculate, starting tomorrow, it's 55 days until we would return? We need to be talking about war and peace. We need to be talking about the Congress exercising its constitutional authority to give the authority to the president for this long-term engagement."

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said the U.S. government is "on autopilot or, alternatively, government without an engine," for passing a budget bill in election-year haste without scrutinizing the effectiveness of some of the departments and programs it funds.

"This kind of all-or-nothing proposition is dysfunctional, anti-democratic, and it prevents Congress from doing its job, which I remind my colleagues, is to represent the American people and be faithful stewards of their money," he said.

The overall spending bill will prevent a government shutdown like the one that occurred a year ago, when House Republicans tried to eliminate funding for Obama's health care program.

It finesses yet another issue that divides the GOP, renewing until next June the Export-Import Bank, which helps finance purchases of U.S. exports. Tea Party lawmakers want to abolish the agency, while business-oriented Republicans support it.

Information for this article was contributed by David Espo, Donna Cassata, Bradley Klapper, Andrew Taylor, Greg Keller, Zeina Karam, Jan Olsen and staff members of The Associated Press and by William Douglas and Lesley Clark of McClatchy Newspapers.

A Section on 09/19/2014

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