GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Peggy let me begin with you. This was a surprise from the president. All the signals were that he was not going to go to the Congress. Apparently he made a decision mostly on his own. Is it the sign of strength that the president says it is? PEGGY NOONAN: Oh I think everybody pretty much views it as the president blinked.

BILL KRISTOL: I wish we had intervened and he could've intervened a year ago, two years ago, I think we would've had better options. But given where we are now, there was really no strong reason not to go to Congress and good reasons to go. I think he did the right thing. I think we'll have a healthy national debate for the next week or two. I t

DAVID GREGORY: So you heard the Secretary of State break news this morning that the evidence, the intelligence suggests now this was a Sarin gas attack at the hands of the Assad government. The secretary saying as he just did the case is building and will continue to build. Is that enough for you to now vote to authorize the president to use force?

FAREED ZAKARIA: Last March, President Barack Obama spoke about how Syria’s use of chemical weapons would be a “game-changer.” It has, except not quite in the sense that he meant. It has been an event that has confused and confounded the Obama administration. Whatever your views on the larger issues, it’s hard not to conclude that the admini

DAVID GREGORY: So here's the fundamental question. The president's made his decision you say to take military action. If you go to Congress and Congress says, "No, you don't have our authority other strike." Will the president move forward with military action against Syria anyway? SECRETARY JOHN KERRY: David, let me but very blunt. I do no

JOHN KERRY, SEC. OF STATE: "Let me just add this morning a very important recent development, that in the last 24 hours, we have learned through samples that were provided to the United States and that have now been tested from first responders in East Damascus, and hair samples and blood samples have tested positive for signatures of sarin. So th

DAVID GREGORY: Bill Kristol, what I heard Secretary Kerry say today is even if Congress says no, the president will say yes. He's decided. He's launching military strikes. He also said, "If Assad were to use weapons again, United States might strike again." BILL KRISTOL: And I think practically speaking, it would be hard for the president to act

WALLACE: As I discussed with Secretary Kerry, this is not just about Syria. It's also about Hezbollah and North Korea and Iran. Senator Inhofe, what kind of message does the president send when he calls a time-out of a more than a week on taking action, says he's going to give it to Congress. Talks about a very limited attack and then heads off to

WALLACE: Mr. Secretary, you make it sound as if this was always the plan, but the fact is, on Friday, when you made your speech, you made a powerful call for quick action. You seemed to be leading the charge up the hill, and the reports -- KERRY: Chris, I made a powerful call for action. I never mentioned the word quick. I made the case for why

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: I know you don’t contemplate a loss, but what if the votes aren’t there? Will the President act anyway? SECRETARY KERRY: The President has the right – as you know, George, the President of the United States has the right to take this action, doesn’t have to go to Congress, but he does so with the belief – and thi

A Meet the Press panel examines how the Iraq war creates a culture of trepidation around the idea of American intervention in the Syrian civil war. Bill Kristol, Gwen Ifill, Katty Kay and Robert Gibbs discuss.

Jack Keane, Joe Lieberman, Jennifer Rubin, and Charles Lane.

First panel: Christiane Amanpour, Pierre Thomas, Martha Raddatz, General James Cartwright and Vali Nasr. Second, third panel: James Carville, Mary Matalin, Peggy Noonan, and Tavis Smiley.