President Barack Obama spoke at a news conference marking the conclusion of the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, to give his full explanation as to why military action is needed in Syria and to detail the long-term goals the United States hopes to achieve by intervening in the Syrian civil war, according to the Washington Post.
The Syrian civil war has been going on for two years and is estimated to have already killed over 100,000 Syrians, many of them civilians. It wasn't until chemical weapons were involved that the United States decided that they would need to take action. President Obama explained that a strong point had to be made to show that some things, in this case the use of chemical weapons, cannot be tolerated.
"Look, I want to repeat here. My goal is to maintain the international norm on banning chemical weapons," President Obama said. "I want that enforcement to be real. I want it to be serious. I want people to understand that gassing innocent people, you know, delivering chemical weapons against children, is not something we do."
For the last week while the president has been abroad Secretary of State John Kerry has been trying to convince Congress to approve of an attack on Assad that is limited in scope, basically only aimed at taking away the Syrian strongman's ability to use chemical weapons. While the president did not say if he would still act militarily if Congress votes against an attack he did acknowledge the opposition in his remarks, according to the Associated Press.
"It's conceivable at the end of the day I don't persuade a majority of the American people that it's the right thing to do," President Obama said. "And then each member of Congress is going to have to decide."
The president was adamant that any military action taking by the United States and its allies would not be with the goal of toppling the Assad regime. Peace can most likely only be achieved by getting Assad to sit down for negotiations, the president suggested, according to the Associated Press.
Prior to the news conference the president sat down for an unscheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, an unexpected surprise given the tensions between the two leaders since Russia accepted a bid for asylum from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
"We both agree that the underlying conflict can only be resolved through a political transition... it remains important for us to work together to try to urge all parties in the conflict to try to resolve it," President Obama said about Putin.
Russia is one of Syria's last remaining allies. The Russians maintain a naval base in the country and have been supplying the Assad regime with military and economic assistance for years. Putin said that his country would not stop assisting Syria in the event of an American attack on the country. Despite a "very meaningful, constructive and friendly conversation" Putin and President Obama are still very much apart on the issue of Syria, according to the Wall Street Journal.
"Everything that happened with the so-called chemical weapons use - it was a provocation from the side of the insurgents, who are counting on outside help from the countries that have supported them from the start," Putin said. "This is the whole point of the provocation. Will we continue to help Syria? We will."
In his press conference President Obama lamented the inaction taken by the United Nations so far. While acknowledging that he would prefer if an international coalition were to join the United States in military action against Syria President Obama said that the U.S. was not afraid to act alone if necessary, according to the Washington Post.
"There are going to be times, though, where, as is true here, the international community is stuck for a whole variety of political reasons," President Obama said. "And if that's the case, people are going to look to the United States and say, 'What are you going to do about it?' And that's not a responsibility that we always enjoy."
A transcript of the entire press conference can be found here.
