McCain did his thing in changing the wording of the Resolution in the Senate Committee...
Although it passed in Committee by a 10-7 vote, only McCain and 2 other Republicans voted in favor.
The Guardian
Dan Roberts and Spencer Ackerman
9/4/13
Syria strikes: Senate committee approves resolution in boost for Obama
Quote:
Senate foreign relations committee votes 10-7 in favour,
paving way for full vote on Senate floor early next week.<snip>
The influential committee voted by 10 votes to seven in favour
of granting the formal military authorisation requested by Barack Obama,
paving the way for a full vote on the floor of the Senate early next week
in response to alleged chemical weapons use in Syria.
But the committee also voted to accept controversial amendments
proposed by hawkish Republican senator John McCain that would explicitly make it
a policy of the US to seek to "change the momentum of the battlefield"
in ways that would force Assad to negotiate his resignation.
"It is the policy of the United States to change the momentum on the battlefield
in Syria so as to create favourable conditions for a negotiated settlement
that ends the conflict and leads to a democratic government in Syria,"
said the second of two amendments proposed by McCain and Democrat Chris Coons.
"A comprehensive US strategy in Syria should aim, as part of a
co-ordinated international effort, to degrade the capabilities of the Assad regime
to use weapons of mass destruction while upgrading the lethal and non-lethal
military capabilities of vetted elements of Syrian opposition forces,
including the Free Syrian Army," it added.
<snip>
The extended US mission objective may make it harder to secure
sufficient Democrat support in the House though, where a majority of Republicans
are also thought to be opposed.
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Essentially, McCain's changes to the resolution will become a poison pill