Personally, I think he decided to go to congress to get a declaration of war and the American people & media are too stupid to realize it. The geopolitical temptation of Syria for the Muslim Brotherhood and potential caliphate is too great.
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The Administration’s Proposed Syria AUMF Is Very Broad [UPDATE on Ground Troops]
http://www.lawfareblog.com/2013/09/the-administrations-proposed-syria-aumf-is-very-broad/
The administration’s proposed (http://www.volokh.com/2013/08/31/thoughts-text-obama-administrations-proposed-authorization-use-military-force-syria/) Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) for Syria provides:
(a) Authorization. — The President is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in connection with the use of chemical weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in the conflict in Syria in order to –
(1) prevent or deter the use or proliferation (including the transfer to terrorist groups or other state or non-state actors), within, to or from Syria, of any weapons of mass destruction, including chemical or biological weapons or components of or materials used in such weapons; or
(2) protect the United States and its allies and partners against the threat posed by such weapons.
There is much more here than at first meets the eye. The proposed AUMF focuses on Syrian WMD but is otherwise very broad. It authorizes the President to use any element of the U.S. Armed Forces and any method of force.
I don’t like that authorization. I want there to be no wiggle room. We either destroy all chem/bio in Syria or we wait until we can figure out how to do so.
To say we will “prevent or deter proliferation” means anything, so it means nothing.