The USA has allies in the region. It isn't just Israel. There are US bases that cannot be ignored in all this. So, while the Republicans want to grand stand over decisions they don't have control of in the House and Senate, there are many considerations in the Oval Office that cannot be disregarded.
It is easy for a dysfunctional Congress to politically scapegoat the President when the decisions are not simple.
So, while the decisions in the Oval Office, according to laws and terms and definitions, may seem clear to the the media and therefore easily scandalized there are military personnel and diplomatic corps and allies that have to be made safe.
Those inquiring about secret bases and other operations are met with everything from ignored questions to airport detentions (click here)
Mon Jul. 8, 2013 11:09 AM PDT
There are hundreds, possibly thousands of US personnel—the military
refuses to say how many—stationed in the ochre-tinted country of
Qatar. Out in the searing heat of the desert, they fly fighter jets or
fix them. They equip and arm troops headed to war. Some work in a
high-tech command-and-control center overseeing
US air operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere in the
Greater Middle East. Yet I found myself sitting in a hotel room in Doha,
Qatar's capital, about 30 miles east of al-Udeid Air Base, the main US
installation in the country, unable to see, let alone talk, to any of
them....
