“The law obliges the president to seek congressional authorization in case of war, but in a whole number of cases in the past the law was ignored on the basis of Congress’s resolution 1973 which authorizes the president to launch a military operation overseas for up to 60 days under emergency circumstances without seeking permission from Congress if immediate action is necessary,” Pushkov said
Continue After The Break. 

.The history of the United States knows a number of precedents when presidents did not seek authorization from Congress for using military force outside of the US, yet no impeachment motion or accusations of breaching the law were subsequently brought against them.
“It happened when Reagan moved troops to Grenada in 1893 and also when Clinton ordered to bomb Belgrade in 1999. Nor did Obama seek
Congress’s permission for a military operation against Libya a few years ago,” Pushkov said.
Obama could have chosen the well-trodden path and skip Congress, yet decided against it – but why?
“If Congress backs him, it will be his response to public opinion - look, I have a mandate of the American nation. Now, judging by opinion polls, Obama has no such mandate,” Pushkov remarked.
"Obama needs Congressional approval to give the war at least some legitimacy," Pushkov asserted.
Obama’s decision to seek congressional support postpones the beginning of military intervention Syria until at least September 9.
“This, of course, is a shift in tactics, but the strategy is unchanged,” said the lawmaker.
He feels that Obama’s tactical maneuver “aims to garner as much support as possible”, which will also buy him time to convince public opinion at home, in Europe and other countries that the US Administration made the right decision, to “turn public opinion in his favor, which is now not in his favor, and thus forge a stronger political platform for military intervention”.
“That’s the essence of Obama’s decision to go to Congress,” said Pushkov.
As for the strategy, in his statement Obama reiterated his earlier decision to use military force against Syria, the lawmaker concluded.
Claims of chemical weapons use by Syria regime 'utter nonsense' - Putin
According to the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, allegations that Assad's government used chemical weapons in Syria are largely ungrounded. "Syrian government troops are on the offensive and have the opposition contained within several areas. In this situation, to give those calling for intervention such a trump card is utter nonsense," - Putin told journalists in Vladivostok.
At the same time Putin notes that next week's G20 Summit in Russia's St Petersburg could be a good platform to discuss Syria crisis.
"The G20 is a good forum for discussing the Syria problem, so why not take advantage of this?" Putin told journalists in Vladivostok on Saturday. Presidential aide Yury Ushakov said earlier that, while Syria is not on the official agenda of the G20 summit in St. Petersburg, the issue could be brought up during bilateral contacts.
Putin also has welcomed the British parliament's decision not to sanction the United Kingdom's participation in a possible military operation against Syria, noting that this decision was an absolute surprise to him.
"The British parliament's decision on Syria is an absolute surprise to me. It shows that there are people guided by common sense there," Putin told journalists in Vladivostok on Saturday.
"We have been accustomed in the past years to the fact that everything in Western society is accepted without special discussions and in conformity with the will and position of the main partner, that is, the U.S., or at least it looked so. If something went wrong this time around, I should repeat that this is something I didn't expect; moreover, I am even surprised by this position," he said.
Addressing Obama as a Nobel Peace Laureate, Putin urged him to think about victims in Syria in the case of US intervention.
"Russia is urging you to think twice before making a decision on an operation in Syria," Putin said.
"Regarding the position of our American colleagues, who affirm that government troops used chemical weapons, and say that they have proof, well, let them show it to the United Nations inspectors and the Security Council," Putin told journalists. "If they don't show it, that means there is none."
Putin also said he has not had contact with US President Barack Obama lately to discuss the Syria problem.
"The US president and I surely discussed this problem at the G8 [summit], and, by the way, we agreed then that we would jointly facilitate peace negotiations in Geneva, and the Americans committed themselves to bringing the armed opposition to these negotiations. I understand this is a difficult process, and it looks like they haven't succeeded in this. But the US president and I have not had such negotiations of late, especially after the Syrian government was accused of using chemical weapons," Putin told journalists on Saturday.
‘Any military action against Syria carried out by US bypassing UN would be act of aggression and violation of international law’ – Russian FM
Moscow calls on Washington to refrain from attempts to use events in Guta on August 21 in order to justify military pressure on Damascus, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said earlier today following a meeting between Russia’s Foreign Ministry Sergei Ryabkov and US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul.
“Michael McFaul put forward arguments proving the US administration’s claims that Bashar al-Assad’s regime is allegedly responsible for a chemical weapons attack in East Guta on August 21,” the Ministry added.
Ryabkov called on the US “to refrain from attempts to use the incident in order to justify growing military pressure on Damascus giving a chance to act in compliance with agreements reached at the G8 summit in Lough Erne in June this year”.
“It was stressed that the report of the team of UN inspectors working in Syria has to be subjected to close scrutiny of the UN Security Council,” the Ministry noted.
The Russian side is convinced that “any military action against Syria carried out by the US bypassing the UN would be an act of aggression and the violation of international law”.
Voice of Russia, TASS, Interfa
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