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A stroll around the White House grounds with his top adviser on Friday evening changed President Barack Obama’s mind about getting Congress to sign off on a military strike in Syria, senior White House officials told NBC News. Obama had been leaning toward attacking Syria without a congressional vote for the past week, the officials said. Obama was convinced he had the evidence to back up a strike and as a result dispatched Secretary of State John Kerry to make a passionate case for U.S. action. But only hours after Kerry called Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "a thug and a...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Republican foreign policy hawks said Monday that President Barack Obama needs to make a strong case for attacking Bashar Assad’s Syria if he wants to win congressional backing.</p> <p>At the same time, Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said it would be a mistake for Congress to reject Obama’s request.</p>

The White House pushed forward aggressively on Monday for Congressional approval of an attack on Syria as President Obama got tentative support from one of his most hawkish Republican critics, Senator John McCain of Arizona, for a “limited” strike — as long, Mr. McCain said, as the president did more to arm the Syrian opposition. After an hourlong meeting with Mr. Obama at the White House, Mr. McCain emerged with Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, to say that the two senators’ discussions with Mr. Obama in the Oval Office had been “encouraging.” He also urged Congress to support...

Ibrahim al-Amin, editor-in-chief of the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, said that Russia instructed its military off the coast of Syria "to prepare for a serious confrontation." He noted that Iran, in parallel, was on high alert of its navy, air force and its rocket systems, and that Syrian army forces not involved in the war with the rebels were at the ready. At the same time Hezbollah, according to Al-Amin, established a war room monitoring all its rocket systems, and called for all Hezbollah members to man their stations.

Either Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has some interesting superstitions regarding his wardrobe and Middle East invasions, or he was on his way to an open-bar boat naming party when President Barack Obama called in his National Security Council:

If President Barack Obama has disappointed Syrian rebels by deferring to Congress before bombing Damascus, he has also dismayed the United States' two main allies in the Middle East. Israel and Saudi Arabia have little love for each other but both are pressing their mutual friend in the White House to hit President Bashar al-Assad hard. And both do so with one eye fixed firmly not on Syria but on their common adversary - Iran. Israel's response to Obama's surprise move to delay or even possibly cancel air strikes made clear that connection: looking soft on Assad after accusing him...

President Obama has released the text of the resolution he will send to Congress, asking them to rubber stamp his already-made decision to bomb Syria. The full text of the resolution is below, but here are the key paragraphs:

Blaming Obama that the American public doesn't understand how important it is. They are saying they don't want "endless war" and won't advocate another "Iraq or Afghanistan."

Rangel: 'Of course it's embarassing' By Ian Swanson - 09/02/13 10:34 AM ET Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) on Monday said "of course it's embarrassing" that President Obama warned Syria of a red line for using chemical weapons but then didn't move forward immediately with a military strike. Rangel, who opposes a military strike against Syria, also said Secretary of State John Kerry must be even more embarrassed after making an aggressive speech calling for a military strike on Friday, and then seeing Obama delay it to ask Congress for authorization a day later. Speaking on MSNBC, Rangel said "I love...

President Barack Obama is inviting former foe Sen. John McCain to the White House, hoping one of Congress’ most intractable foreign policy hawks will help sell the idea of a U.S. military intervention in Syria to a nation deeply scarred by more than a decade of war. … In an interview with an Israeli television network, (McCain) said Obama has “encouraged our enemies” by effectively punting his decision to Congress. He and fellow Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina have threatened to vote against Obama’s authorization if the military plan doesn’t seek to shift the momentum of the 2½...

The Israeli political and security leadership is privately horrified by President Barack Obama’s 11th-hour turnaround on striking Syria — a decision he took alone, after he had sent his Secretary of State John Kerry to speak out passionately and urgently in favor of military action. It is now fearful that, in the end, domestic politics or global diplomacy will ultimately lead the US to hold its fire altogether. It is worried, furthermore, at the ever-deeper perception of Obama’s America in the Middle East as weak, hesitant and confused — most especially in the view of the region’s most radical forces,...