In a last-ditch effort to make his case for action military action in Syria, President Obama will address the American people from the White House on Tuesday.
Mr. Obama made the announcement during a press conference in Saint Petersburg on Friday, hours before he departs the G-20 Summit and returns to Washington.
His remarks will come as Congress prepares to vote on resolutions authorizing the use of force against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.
“I’m confident that if we deliberate carefully and choose wisely and embrace our responsibilities, we can meet the challenges of this moment,” Mr. Obama said.
But support both in Congress and in the international community appears to be waning. In the coming days, Mr. Obama and other administration officials will ramp up efforts to convince global partners and the American people that Mr. Assad must be held accountable for using chemical weapons against his own people in that country’s ongoing, bloody civil war.
“Failing to respond to this breach of this international norm would send a signal to rogue nations, authoritarian regimes and terrorist organizations that they can develop and use weapons of mass destruction and not pay a consequence — and that’s not the world that we want to live in,” Mr. Obama said.
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• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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