WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Wednesday the international community's credibility is at stake in the debate over a military response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria. His top advisers took the argument for action to the opposition-controlled House of Representatives, where the support seen in the Senate will be harder to find. Asked about his past comments drawing a “red line” against the use of chemical weapons, Obama said that line had already been drawn by a chemical weapons treaty ratified by countries around the world. “That wasn't something I made up,” he said. He spoke in Sweden before he attends a G-20 economic summit in Russia later this week. With Obama in Europe, his top national security aides were at the Capitol arguing for Congress' authorization for strikes against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad's regime. That's in retaliation for what the administration says was a sarin gas attack by his forces outside Damascus last month that killed more than 1,400. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee had been expected to vote on authorizing the use of force as early as Wednesday — the first in a series of votes as the president's request makes its way through Senate and House committees before coming before the two chambers for a final vote. But the Senate committee's public meeting was delayed after Republican Sen. John McCain, an outspoken advocate of intervention against Assad's regime, said he doesn't support a new Senate resolution. It permits Obama to order a “limited and tailored” military mission against Syria. – Agencies
