Corker on Syria: 'We Will Respond'

Top-ranking congressmen call for action, as others want to verify, limit scope
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 25, 2013 1:16 PM CDT
Corker on Syria: 'We Will Respond'
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., is calling for "very surgical" action in Syria.   (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)

The alleged chemical attack in Syria continues to reverberate today, with members of Congress hitting the Sunday talk show rodeo to call for action—or restraint, reports Politico. Leading the charge for action was Bob Corker, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who said he believes chemical agents were used and "I think we will respond in a surgical way. Something that gets their attention, that causes them to understand that we are not going to put up with this kind of activity." Corker's Democrat counterpart in the House, Eliot Engel, was equally hawkish, saying, "We have to move, and we have to move quickly. Congress needs to be involved, but perhaps not initially." There were calls for caution, however: Rhode Island Democrat Jack Reed said he wants to "verify that it was directed by the Assad regime because that will allow us to build an international coalition," while Texas Republican Mike McCaul worried about public support for action, saying, “I don’t think that American people have an appetite to put troops on the ground in Syria." Elsewhere on your Sunday dial:

(More Sunday morning talk shows stories.)

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