• Listen to this segment

• Listen to the entire program

President Obama last night addressed the nation to make his case publicly for military action on Syria. Invoking details of a scenario in which Syrian forces gassed over a thousand Syrians to death and claiming that such a scenario was backed up by evidence of the regime evaluating the attack afterward, the President made the case that the US had to act in order to send a message about the use of chemical weapons despite public reluctance to get involved in another war.

Obama also stated that he had urged a postponement of the Senate vote on his resolution to authorize force in order to see how a Russia-brokered deal with Syria over its chemical arsenal might play out. Analysts see the delay as more of an indication of the lack of current Congressional support for the bill.

Finally, invoking the rhetoric of American exceptionalism, the President held up an image of the US’s role as a global superpower, upholding the rule of international law and making the world a better place.

Meanwhile, the intelligence which ostensibly prompted the use of military force is still being questioned despite White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough’s proclamation in interviews that “[t]he entire world believes” that President Assad used chemical weapons. In fact, an open letter sent to President Obama by a group of former intelligence analysts asserts that colleagues in the intelligence community have privately confirmed the flimsiness of the evidence. Apparently an intercepted message within the Syrian government acknowledges the chemical attack but expresses surprise at it.

One of the signees of the letter is Ray McGovern, who served as a CIA analyst for 27 years and conducted one-on-one morning briefings for President Reagan’s most senior national-security officials. McGovern says that if President Obama really wants to make his case for war he should release the details of the evidence, much like Reagan did in justifying the US’s 1986 bombing of Libya.

GUEST: Ray McGovern, who served as a CIA analyst for 27 years and conducted one-on-one morning briefings for President Reagan’s most senior national-security officials. He is also co-founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity