Obama Will Delay Vote on Syria

President Obama has asked Congress to postpone its vote on Syria while he assesses the credibility of a Russian-led proposal in which Syria would give up its chemical weapons store in exchange for a reprieve from U.S. strikes. The president announced the decision in a national address in which he continued to make the case that the Syrian regime had used chemical weapons against its people and that, in the absence of a peaceful solution, military strikes are the best way to deliver the message that President Assad has crossed an inviolable line. Obama acknowledged that America is weary of war and a potential “slippery slope” but said he'd take pains to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. “I will not put American boots on the ground in Syria,” he said. “I will not pursue an open-ended war like Iraq or Afghanistan.”