{"id":76522,"date":"2013-09-09T11:40:25","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T08:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=76522"},"modified":"2023-04-06T00:51:41","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T21:51:41","slug":"obama-tests-limits-of-power-in-syrian-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2013\/09\/09\/obama-tests-limits-of-power-in-syrian-conflict\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama Tests Limits of Power in Syrian Conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"tabs\">\n<li>\n<h6 class=\"byline\">By <span itemid=\"http:\/\/topics.nytimes.com\/top\/reference\/timestopics\/people\/s\/charlie_savage\/index.html\" itemprop=\"author creator\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"> <span itemprop=\"name\">CHARLIE SAVAGE<\/span><\/span><\/h6>\n<p><br class=\"dateline\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"articleBody\">\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">WASHINGTON \u2014 In asking Congress to authorize an attack on Syria over claims it used chemical weapons, President Obama has chosen to involve lawmakers in deciding whether to undertake a military intervention that in some respects resembles the limited types that many presidents \u2014 Ronald Reagan in Grenada, Bill Clinton in Kosovo and even Mr. Obama in Libya \u2014 have launched on their own.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"articleInline runaroundLeft\">\n<div class=\"inlineImage module\">\n<div class=\"image\">\n<div class=\"icon enlargeThis\"><a>Enlarge This Image<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a> <span itemid=\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/2013\/09\/09\/world\/power\/power-articleInline.jpg\" itemprop=\"associatedMedia\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" itemprop=\"url\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/2013\/09\/09\/world\/power\/power-articleInline.jpg\" width=\"190\" height=\"185\" \/> <\/span> <\/a><\/div>\n<h6 class=\"credit\">Sergey Guneev\/Host Photo Agency, via Getty Images<\/h6>\n<p class=\"caption\">President Obama\u2019s strategy ensures that no matter what happens, the crisis is likely to create an important precedent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"columnGroup doubleRule\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"articleInline runaroundLeft collectionHeader\">\n<h6 class=\"sectionHeader flushBottom\">Multimedia<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"articleInline runaroundLeft firstArticleInline\">\n<div class=\"story\">\n<div class=\"wideThumb\"><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/video\/landing\/conflict-in-syria\/100000001997657\/?ref=middleeast\">  <span class=\"mediaOverlay video\">Video<\/span> <\/span><\/div>\n<h6><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/video\/landing\/conflict-in-syria\/100000001997657\/?ref=middleeast\"> Videos on the Syrian Conflict<\/span><\/h6>\n<h6 class=\"byline\"><\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"articleInline runaroundLeft\">\n<div class=\"columnGroup singleRule\">\n<ul class=\"headlinesOnly multiline flush\">\n<li>\n<h6><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2013\/09\/05\/us\/politics\/syria-vote-tracker.html?ref=middleeast\"> <span class=\"media icon interactive\">Interactive Graphic<\/span>: Where Lawmakers Stand on Military Action in Syria<\/span><\/h6>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"columnGroup doubleRule\">\n<h3 class=\"sectionHeader\">Related<\/h3>\n<ul class=\"headlinesOnly multiline flush\">\n<li>\n<h6>Times Topic: Crisis in Syria<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h6><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/09\/09\/world\/middleeast\/on-both-sides-syrians-make-pleas-to-us.html?ref=middleeast\"> On Both Sides, Syrians Make Pleas to U.S.<\/span> (September 9, 2013)<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h6><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/09\/09\/world\/middleeast\/kerry-announces-saudi-support-for-syrian-strike.html?ref=middleeast\"> White House Adds Arab Support as It and Assad Use TV to Press Their Cases<\/span> (September 9, 2013)<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h6><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/09\/09\/business\/media\/assad-denies-attack-in-interview-with-charlie-rose.html?ref=middleeast\"> Assad Denies Chemical Attack in Interview for U.S. Viewers <\/span> (September 9, 2013)<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h6><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/09\/09\/world\/europe\/after-bold-step-on-syria-french-leader-finds-himself-dismissed-as-lackey.html?ref=middleeast\"> After Bold Step on Syria, French Leader Finds Himself Dismissed as Lackey<\/span> (September 9, 2013)<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"doubleRule\">\n<div class=\"story\" id=\"twitterInlinePromo\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">On another level, the proposed strike is unlike anything that has come before \u2014 an attack inside the territory of a sovereign country, without its consent, without a self-defense rationale and without the authorization of the United Nations Security Council or even the participation of a multilateral treaty alliance like NATO, and for the purpose of punishing an alleged war crime that has already occurred rather than preventing an imminent disaster.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">The contrasting moves, ceding more of a political role to Congress domestically while expanding national war powers on the international stage, underscore the complexity of Mr. Obama\u2019s approach to the Syrian crisis. His administration pressed its case on Sunday, saying it had won Saudi backing for a strike, even as the Syrian president warned he would retaliate.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">Mr. Obama\u2019s strategy ensures that no matter what happens, the crisis is likely to create an important precedent in the often murky legal question of when presidents or nations may lawfully use military force.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">Kathryn Ruemmler, the White House counsel, said the president believed a strike would be lawful, both in international law and domestic law, even if neither the Security Council nor Congress approved it. But the novel circumstances, she said, led Mr. Obama to seek Congressional concurrence to bolster its legitimacy.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">The move is right, said Walter Dellinger, who led the Justice Department\u2019s Office of Legal Counsel in the Clinton administration, because the proposed attack is not \u201ccovered by any of the previous precedents for the unilateral use of executive power.\u201d<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean it couldn\u2019t become another precedent,\u201d Mr. Dellinger added. \u201cBut when the president is going beyond where any previous president has gone, it seems appropriate to determine whether Congress concurs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">Disputes about whether and when a president or nation may launch an act of war can be hazy because courts generally do not issue definitive answers about such matters. Instead presidents, and countries, create precedents that over time can become generally accepted as a gloss on what written domestic laws and international treaties permit. Against that backdrop, many legal scholars say Mr. Obama is proposing to violate international law. But others contend that the question is ambiguous, and some suggest that the United States could establish a precedent creating new international law if it strikes.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">The United States has used its armed forces abroad dozens of times without Security Council approval, but typically has invoked self-defense; when Mr. Reagan invaded Grenada in 1983, for example, he cited a need to protect Americans on the island along with the request of neighboring countries. The most notable precedent for the Syria crisis was Mr. Clinton\u2019s 1999 bombing of Kosovo, but that was undertaken as part of NATO and in response to a time-urgent problem: stopping a massacre of civilians.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">By contrast, the United States would carry out strikes on Syria largely alone, and to punish an offense that has already occurred. That crime, moreover, is defined by two treaties banning chemical weapons, only one of which <span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/disarmament.un.org\/treaties\/a\/1925\/syrianarabrepublic\/acc\/paris\">Syria signed<\/span>, that contain no enforcement provisions. Such a strike has never happened before.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">Attempts to deal with the novelty of the crisis in international law have become entangled in the separate domestic law question of whether the president could order strikes on Syria without Congressional permission.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">Seeking the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, Mr. Obama embraced a limited view of a president\u2019s power to initiate war without Congress, telling The Boston Globe that \u201cthe president does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">But by the 2011 conflict in Libya he abandoned his campaign view of presidential war powers as too limited. While the NATO intervention was authorized for international law purposes by the Security Council, in domestic law Congress did not authorize Mr. Obama to participate. But Mr. Obama\u2019s Office of Legal Counsel argued that it was lawful for him to unilaterally order American forces to bomb Libya because of national interests in preserving regional stability and in supporting the \u201ccredibility and effectiveness\u201d of the Security Council.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li id=\"navBusiness\">\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">In recent weeks, administration lawyers decided that it was within Mr. Obama\u2019s constitutional authority to carry out a strike on Syria as well, even without permission from Congress or the Security Council, because of the \u201cimportant national interests\u201d of limiting regional instability and of enforcing the norm against using chemical weapons, Ms. Ruemmler said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"articleInline runaroundLeft\"><\/div>\n<p><br class=\"sectionHeader flushBottom\" \/><\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">But even if he could act alone, that left the question of whether he should. The lack of a historical analogue and traditional factors that have justified such operations, she said, contributed to his decision to go to Congress.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">\u201cThe president believed that it was important to enhance the legitimacy of any action that would be taken by the executive,\u201d Ms. Ruemmler said, \u201cto seek Congressional approval of that action and have it be seen, again as a matter of legitimacy both domestically and internationally, that there was a unified American response to the horrendous violation of the international norm against chemical weapons use.\u201d<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">At a news conference last week, Mr. Obama argued that the United States should \u201cget out of the habit\u201d of having the president \u201cstretch the boundaries of his authority as far as he can\u201d while lawmakers \u201csnipe\u201d from the sidelines. But he also explained his decision in terms of very special circumstances: humanitarian interventions where there is no immediate pressure to act and the United Nations is blocked.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">Jack Goldsmith, a head of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Bush administration, said the limited criteria cited by Mr. Obama mean his move might not apply to more traditional future interventions. The more important precedent, he said, may concern international law and what he portrayed as Mr. Obama\u2019s dismissive attitude toward whether not having permission from the Security Council should stop humanitarian interventions.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">Mr. Obama has in recent days repeatedly portrayed the Security Council system as incapable of performing its function of \u201cenforcing international norms and international law,\u201d and as so paralyzed by the veto power wielded by Russia that it is instead acting as a \u201cbarrier\u201d to that goal.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">Mr. Goldsmith said that in the Kosovo campaign, the Clinton administration shied away from arguing that it was consistent with international law to carry out a military attack not authorized by the Security Council purely for humanitarian reasons. Its fear was that such a doctrine could be misused by other nations, loosening constraints on war.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">In his <span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/12\/11\/world\/europe\/11prexy.text.html?pagewanted=all\">2009 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech<\/span>, Mr. Obama said all nations \u201cmust adhere to standards that govern the use of force.\u201d But he also argued that humanitarian grounds justified military force and cited \u201cthe Balkans,\u201d leaving ambiguous whether he meant Bosnia, which had some Security Council approval; Kosovo, which did not; or both.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">Ms. Ruemmler said that while an attack on Syria \u201cmay not fit under a traditionally recognized legal basis under international law,\u201d the administration believed that given the novel factors and circumstances, such an action would nevertheless be \u201cjustified and legitimate under international law\u201d and so not prohibited.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">Still, she acknowledged that it was \u201cmore controversial for the president to act alone in these circumstances\u201d than for him to do so with Congressional backing.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">Steven G. Bradbury, a head of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Bush administration, said it would be \u201cpolitically difficult\u201d to order strikes if Congress refused to approve them. But he predicted future presidents would not feel legally constrained to echo Mr. Obama\u2019s request. \u201cEvery overseas situation, every set of exigent circumstances, is a little different, so I don\u2019t really buy that it\u2019s going to tie future presidents\u2019 hands very much,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p itemprop=\"articleBody\">But Harold H. Bruff, a University of Colorado law professor who is one of the authors of a casebook on the separation of powers, argued that the episode would have enduring political ramifications. \u201cI\u2019m sure that Obama or some later president will argue later that they can still choose whether or not to go to Congress,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it does raise the political cost of a future president not going to Congress because the precedent will be cited against him or her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>iness<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By CHARLIE SAVAGE WASHINGTON \u2014 In asking Congress to authorize an attack on Syria over claims it used chemical weapons, President Obama has chosen to involve lawmakers in deciding whether to undertake a military intervention that in some respects resembles the limited types that many presidents \u2014 Ronald Reagan in Grenada, Bill Clinton in Kosovo [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":782186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}