President Obama said he had a "well-deserved reputation" for taking the idea of military engagements seriously Friday at his press conference at the G20 summit in Russia:
MAJOR GARRETT: I wonder if you leave here and return to Washington, seeing the skepticism there and hearing it here with any different ideas that might delay military action. For example, some in Congress have suggested giving the Syrian regime 45 days to sign the chemical weapons convention, get rid of its chemical stockpiles, do something that would enhance international sense of accountability for Syria, but delay military action. Are you, Mr. President, looking at any of these ideas, or are we on a fast track for military action as soon as Congress renders its judgment one way or the other?
OBAMA: I am listening to all these ideas, and some of them are constructive, and I'm listening to ideas in Congress and I'm listening to ideas here. But, i want to repeat here -- my goal is to maintain the international norm on banning chemical weapons. I want that enforcement to be real. I want it to be serious. I want people to understand that gassing innocent people, delivering chemical weapons against children is not something we do. It's prohibited in active wars between countries. We certainly don't do it against kids, and we've got to stand up for that principle. If there are tools that we can use to ensure that, obviously my preference would be to act internationally in a serious way and to make sure that Mr. Assad gets the message. I'm not itching for a military action. Recall, Major, that I have been criticized for the last couple of years by some of the folks who are now saying they would oppose these strikes, for not striking, and I think that I have a well well-deserved reputation for taking very seriously and soberly the idea of military engagement. So, we will look at these ideas. So far at least, I have not seen ideas presented that as a practical matter I think would do the job. But, you know, this is a situation where part of the reason I wanted to foster a debate was to make sure that, you know, everybody thought about both the ramifications of action and inaction.