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Sen. Manchin pushes for 45-day breather before Syria strike

Sen. Joe Manchin thinks the U.S. needs to exercise some “super patience”  before striking Syria.

Sen. Joe Manchin thinks the U.S. needs to exercise some “super patience”  before striking Syria.

“Being a superpower is more than showing you have the super might,” the West Virginia Democrat said on Tuesday’s Morning Joe. “You have to have super patience, super negotiating, super diplomacy, and, most important, super humanitarian need where needed.”

But since both representatives at Congressional briefings and the president have indicated there is “no urgency to strike,” Manchin said, the country should slow down. It’s why he and North Dakota Democrat Sen. Heidi Heitkamp are drafting a resolution that would give Syria a month and a half to sign an international chemical weapons ban or face an American strike.

“The failure by the government of Bashar al-Assad to sign and comply with the [Chemical Weapons] Convention clearly demonstrates a disregard of international norms on the use of chemical weapons,” a draft of the resolution obtained by Politico reads. “If the Government of Syria does not sign the Convention within 45 days after the date of the enactment of this resolution, all elements of national power will be considered by the United States government.”

The 45-day period would allow the Senate to debate a Syria strategy while allowing the president to build a larger international coalition.

“I think it’s hypocritical to vote against something if you don’t have a better idea,” Manchin said on Morning Joe.