Republican Senator Bob Corker from Tennessee who serves as the committee’s ranking member, said the Obama administration needs to use the hearing to explain why military action is necessary and “how it will be sufficiently limited to keep the U.S. from being drawn further into the Syrian conflict.”
“Congress’s role in U.S. military force has too often been abdicated to presidential authority, so I look forward to a vigorous debate on this important authorization,” said Mr. Corker.
Secretary of State John Kerry and Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel will be joined by the top US military commander, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey,
Kerry will warn that a failure to act in Syria undermines “the deterrent impact of the international norm against chemical weapons use”, a senior State Department official told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that Western inaction “risks emboldening [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad and his key allies, Hezbollah and Iran”.