Unpersuaded, Pryor set to oppose blow to Syria
Sen. Mark Pryor said Saturday that he will vote against President Barack Obama’s request for a military attack against Syria when it comes before Congress this week.
Pryor, the only Democrat in Arkansas’ delegation, joins U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, a Republican, in announcing that he is not in favor of Obama’s proposal, which the president made after U.S. officials
concluded Syria used chemical weapons last month and killed 1,400 civilians.
On Friday, Republican Sen. John Boozman said that “so far” he still remains opposed to military action, but that he would continue to evaluate the president’s plan. Arkansas Reps. Tim Griffin and Steve Womack, both Republicans, have said they are leaning toward voting no, leaving U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton, a Republican and former Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran, as the only member of the state’s delegation to favor the attack.
In Pryor’s statement released Saturday, he said there were three criteria that would have had to have been met before he would have considered military force and that, in his opinion, they had not been proven.
“I have said, before any military action in Syria is taken, the administration must prove a compelling national security interest, clearly define a mission that has a definitive end-state and then build a true coalition of allies that would actively participate in any action we take,” Pryor said. “Based on the information presented to me and the evidence I have gathered, I do not believe these criteria have been met and I cannot support military action against Syria at this time.”
Attempts to reach Pryor through his staff for further comment were unsuccessful Saturday.
His announcement came on the same day the U.S. government released video of the aftermath of the gas attack to several national media outlets.
Pryor’s stance on the Syria vote draws another contrast between him and Cotton, who has announced he will seek Pryor’s Senate seat in the next election. Cotton called for a military attack on Syria before the president, saying that the U.S.’ national security interests are at stake.
“The day the United States does not act is not just a day that [Syria’s leader] Bashar al-Assad knows it’s open season for chemical weapons, but also the day [North Korea’s leader] Kim Jong-un knows that and most ominously, the day that Iran Supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei spins his centrifuges into overdrive, which starts the clock ticking to the less than two year moment when the warheads on intercontinental missiles could hit our constituents here in the United States,” Cotton said in a statement on his website.
The impending vote by Congress may insert foreign policy into a Senate race that had been expected to focus on issues such as health care. The Republican Party has fought hard to link Pryor with Obama in the minds of Arkansas voters, who overwhelmingly voted against Obama in the last presidential election.
Pyror’s campaign manager declined to comment on whether the Democratic senator’s vote against Obama’s request for military action will serve to separate him from the president and show voters that he truly is bipartisan — something he’s attempted to peg himself as during initial campaign speeches.
According to an Associated Press survey, the U.S. Senate remains divided on the Syria issue. But those in the House of Representatives who have taken a stance are either opposing or are leaning against the attack by a 6-to-1 margin. Still, almost half of the 433-member House and a third of the 100-member Senate remain undecided, according to the Associated Press.
For Crawford, it was Obama’s failure to gain enough allies and lack of a specific mission that made him decide to vote against the attack, he said in a statement issued Friday.
“President Obama has done little to build a broad and solid coalition, nor has he articulated clear and meaningful objectives. Absent a well-planned, comprehensive strategy for this region, I cannot support an ad-hoc approach that would likely provoke a response from Assad and his allies, Iran and the terrorist group Hezbollah, which is a concern expressed by former CIA director Michael Hayden,” Crawford said.
U.S. officials have said Iran has ordered its militants in Iraq to strike the U.S. embassy and other American interests in Baghdad if the U.S. executes an attack on Syria, several media outlets have reported.
Womack has said that his hesitance in approving the attack on Syria is caused by a lack of committed support from U.S. allies. Griffin initially said Obama had “a lot of work to do” to convince him and Arkansans that military action is appropriate in this case. His press secretary didn’t return an email Saturday asking for an update on his position.