WASHINGTON - The Senate gave overwhelming approval on Thursday to a measure on the training and arming of Syrian rebels, then fled the Capitol for the fall campaign, sidestepping the debate over the extent of American military action until the lame-duck session of Congress later this year.
The training measure, pushed hard by President Obama, was tucked into a larger Senate bill to keep the government funded past Sept. 30, a maneuver that leaders of both parties favored to ensure as few defections as possible. The Senate's 73-to-22 vote, a day after the House passed the measure, masked the serious doubts that many senators had.
The broader debate over Congress's role in blessing or expanding a new military campaign in the Middle East was one that few on Capitol Hill wanted just six weeks before the midterm elections. With memories of the 2002 vote to authorize force in Iraq still haunting every vote Congress takes on matters of military force, members of both parties - especially those with their eyes on the White House - tried to find a position they would not regret.
'I'm not sending your son, your daughter over to the middle of that chaos,' said Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, whose libertarian views have propelled him into contention for his party's 2016 nomination. 'The people who live there need to stand up and fight.'
He added, 'I am not giving up, but it is their war, and they need to fight.'
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