President Obama Addresses the Nation on Syria

President Barack Obama tried Tuesday to sell a military intervention he never wanted to an American public that opposes it, telling the nation that he needed authorization to attack Syria for chemical weapons use as leverage in a newly emerged diplomatic opening from Russia.

"Our ideals and principles as well as our national security are at stake in Syria," Obama said in making the case that the United States must act when dictators such as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "brazenly" violate international treaties intended to protect humanity.

The 15-minute nationally televised speech initially was planned as Obama's final push to win support from a skeptical public and Congress for his planned attack on Syria for what his administration calls a major chemical weapons attack on August 21 that killed more than 1,400 people in suburban Damascus.