"Obama has made the case that the U.S. empowered by the world’s fear of and revulsion for chemical weapons should hit Syria hard. After all, we have seen the corpses – little ones and big ones – pile up, choked to death by sarin gas."

Politicians mull while chemical weapons kill hundreds in Syria

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LAS CRUCES, N.M. – They say politics makes strange bedfellows. Sometimes politicians call that compromise, something we have not seen much of late in Washington, but I can only imagine true-blue Beto O’Rourke’s face when he woke up this morning next to right-winger U.S. Senator Ted Cruz. Their procrustean bed had sliced off O’Rourke’s left side leaving Cruz with all the covers and most of the mattress. The ties that bind them are doubts about supporting President Obama’s decision to strike at Syria’s caches of chemical weapons. Obama has made the case that the U.S. empowered by the world’s fear of and revulsion for chemical weapons should hit Syria hard.

Maria Espinoza talks to Congressman Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas) about her concerns about U.S. military intervention in Syria after the town hall meeting on Sept. 2 at the Mills building in Downtown El Paso. (Aaron Montes/Borderzine)

O’Rourke says his constituents and his conscience will decide his vote on a U.S. military strike in Syria

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EL PASO – Only a few of some 150 military veterans, businessmen and members of the local Syrian community attending a town hall meeting here Sept. 2 called by U.S. Representative Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) said they supported any U.S. involvement in the Syrian civil war. On Aug. 31, President Obama called for a congressional vote to authorize a military strike against Syrian stockpiles of chemical weapons after the government of Bashar Hafez al-Assad allegedly unleashed a chemical attack that killed nearly 1,500 of his own people. O’Rourke said he wanted to hear from his constituents before taking part in next week’s vote in Washington, D.C. “With your emails, Facebook quotes, phone calls, letters, I feel like I can then make a decision that is in the best interest of my community and in keeping with my conscience,” O’Rourke said.