WASHINGTON — In the heat of an election campaign, Congress on Thursday night cleared the way for the U.S. military to train and equip Syrian rebels for a war against Islamic State terrorists — reluctant ratification of a new strategy that President Barack Obama outlined scarcely a week ago.
The Senate voted 78-22 on the Obama legislation, which also provides funding for the government after the end of the budget year Sept. 30, eliminating any threat of a shutdown. The House approved the bill Wednesday.
At the White House soon after the vote, Obama said he was pleased that a majority of both Republicans and Democrats had supported the legislation.
“I believe we’re strongest as a nation when the president and Congress work together,” he said. Noting the killing of two Americans by the Islamic State, he said that “as Americans we do not give in to fear” and would not be put off by such brutal tactics.
In the Senate, 44 Democrats, 33 Republicans and one independent voted for the bill, while nine Democrats, 12 Republicans and one independent opposed it. Colorado Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet, both Democrats, voted for the bill.
The issue created new fault lines for this fall’s elections for control of the Senate as well as the 2016 race for the White House.
For a second straight day, the administration dispatched top-ranking officials to reassure lawmakers — and the public — that no U.S. ground combat operation was in the offing. Obama made the same promise in an address to the nation eight days ago as he laid out his new policy — and repeated it Thursday night. His new strategy includes increased airstrikes in Iraq and the possibility of strikes in Syria.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told one House committee that Obama “is not going to order American combat ground forces into that area.”
Obama’s general plan is to have U.S. troops train Syrian rebels at camps in Saudi Arabia, a process that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, said could take a year.
In Washington, leaders in both political parties supported the Senate legislation, draining the debate of all suspense.
Asked about approving Obama’s plan in the wake of the war in Iraq, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, “Iraq was a mistake. I was misled, and I voted wrong. But this is not Iraq.”
Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell also favored the legislation, yet said it must be followed by a top-to-bottom review of the administration’s global military strategy.
