>> you can see it online. >> thanks for watching today. >> "state of the union with candy crowley" starts right now. make some great memories today. a picture is still worth a thousand words but will it sway a nation? today, u.s. intelligence agencies authenticate a series of horrific videos of what appear to be victims of sarin gas attacks in syria. a dvd designed to punctuate the president's argument that the u.s. must strike. >> we may not solve the whole problem but this particular problem using chemical weapons on children, this one we might have an impact on and that's worth acting on. >> in a pivotal week that includes top secret briefings and hearings and a political speech to the nation. the latest from chief of staff denis mcdonough and can a speech from someone as gifted as this

president overcome this. >> i think we should stay the hell out of there. >> when are we going to start dealing with major problems in this country? >> it's shaping up not as republican versus democrat or hawks versus doves but as washington versus the rest of the country. joining us, three members of congress who feel heat in their districts and our political panel on what gets back burnered while syria boils and refugees pour into neighboring countries. dr. sanjay gupta reports from lebanon. this is "state of the union." good morning from washington. i'm candy crowley. we'll bring you our interview with white house chief of staff denis mcdonough in a minute. first the shocking videos obtained by cnn documenting the chemical attacks in syria. these are graphic and gruesome and children apparently dying from a sarin gas attack. these videos have been shown to members of the senate

intelligence committee to bolster the administration's case to intervene in syria. joining me now dana bash and jim shuto. welcome to cnn. i haven't had a chance to tell you that. it's good to have you. dana, the videos. clearly meant to drive the vote. is it? >> at this point it's hard to see how it will. i'll just tell you what their plans are. as you said they played it in the senate intelligence committee. the chairwoman of that committee, dianne feinstein asked it to be distributed widely. it will be played tomorrow night at a big classified briefing in the house. and it's on the website. the problem is that of course this hits home the moral objective which is to make sure this doesn't happen again. but that's not the issue for so many of these members of congress who are undecided and leaning no. they know it's bad. they know it's horrible. there are questions that are unanswered from the administration and all of those classified briefings, public

hearings as well, what is the military objective? what happens the day after the strikes? what is our goal there? they're not getting these answers and you have that up against what you just played which is overwhelming opposition from the people back home and people are just saying i don't know how to do this. the combination of hawks versus liberals is just stunning and frankly very telling. >> underwhelmed by the intelligence and full-court press in the hearings last week. general dempsey, secretaries kerry and hagel. general dempsey the reluctant warrior. i hear the point that risk weapons fall into terrorists hands and will be used making the threat more immediate than iron and north korea. secretary kerry said if we don't act they could be used on a daily basis by anyone anywhere. trying to hit home to americans. >> the other concern for many members of congress is what if

you do hit and you get some of the chemical weapons but not all of them and then he does it again, then what does the u.s. do? >> which has been a question up there for a long time. we just keep going back. let me ask you. international support has been about the same as the domestic support saying this was terrible but they just -- secretary kerry working very hard but what he's got is it was terrible. >> the president's coalition is no bigger today than it was last week. in fact, you have some pullback. france and eu now saying they're not going to act until the u.s. issues its findings. some support intervention but they evade saying they support military action. >> thanks for joining us. as i mentioned, we spoke a little bit earlier to white house chief of staff and the first question was about international support. joining we now dennis mcdowcdon,

chief of staff at the white house. thanks for joining us. if the u.s. should launch a strike, is there any country anywhere that would provide military equipment or military personnel to help us? >> it's important to see the statement released by the g-20 on friday where we had several countries joining us in calling for the syrian regime to be held accountable. >> but not supporting a u.s. strike. let's make that clear. >> to be held accountable for an instance that nobody is debating. nobody debates the intelligence which makes clear and we have high confidence about this that in august the assad regime used chemical weapons against its own people. a former iranian president has indicated that he believes that. the entire world believes that. we're talking to congress about that now. so congress has an opportunity this week to answer a simple question. should there be consequences for him for having used that material.

there will be a lot of interest in the answer to that question in tehran, among hezbollah and in damascus. >> i want to ask about tehran in a minute. let me get to this point. right now the president has talked about it's the world's red line. the president talked about the neighboring countries that are threatened by what assad has done and his use of chemical weapons. are any of them willing to provide military equipment or military personnel. do you have a firm commitment from anybody? >> we have commitments as you have seen from the statements and series of statements since including yesterday out of brussels where the eu came out and said that the syrian government should be held to account. >> moral support. it's not specific support for the strike at this point. >> not at this point but it is specific support for holding him to account and it is a recognition that it happened. we are no longer debating whether it happened or whether it didn't happen. that's important. but we do have plenty of friends

who are standing with us. let's remember where the president said it's an international red line. going back almost 100 years, 1925, the geneva protocol against the use of these terrible weapons, that's been in place for almost 100 years. >> it's a protocol that does not include and here's the punishment if it happens. we should say that. the answer is no at this point. >> it's a protocol that allowed us to ensure that our people, our troops, men and women in uniform have not been subjected to attacks with chemical weapons since world war i. that's the important issue here. we want to continue to have it that way. >> let me put it to rest, no firm commitments from military personnel or military equipment from any other country. >> we have plenty of support. i'm not going to get into who is going to do what in any particular operation. we feel very good about the support we have. we'll continue to build more. >> at this point more moral support than anything is what you're talking about. >> you're trying to get me to

say that and i'm not going say that. >> will you wait until after the u.n. inspectors come out with their report on the chemical weapons before a strike? >> obviously we're interested in what the u.n. inspectors have to say. let's remember a couple things. one, they're not going to be able to tell us because mandate will not allow them to tell us who is responsible for the attack. it could be interesting kr corroborative information. everyone i have spoke to believes he used chemical weapons in august against his own people. >> the question comes from the eu in their statement seem to indicate we want to see this u.n. report. >> it is very important to our friends in europe and other friends as well. so we've indicated as secretary kerry said yesterday, we indicated to our friends that we'll continue to work with them. we'll see what comes out of new york. we're right now focused on washington and trying to get

congressional support for this. >> would you wait for the eu? >> right now the time line seem to work consistent with one another. we'll see how this works. the president will make this decision in consultation with congress on our time line as best suits our interest. >> when the president speaks on tuesday night, do you have and will he reveal a direct link between bashar al assad and these chemical weapons being used? >> well, i'm not going to front run the president's address. here's what we do know. >> is there one? does intelligence show a direct link? >> here's what we know. here's the common sense test. i won't talk to you about intelligence. here's the common sense test. the material was used in the eastern suburbs of damascus controlled by the opposition for some time. it was delivered by rockets. rockets which we know the assad regime has. and we have no indications that the opposition has.

and you've now seen cnn ran these videos yesterday. you've seen the video proof of the outcome of those attacks. all of that leads to as i say, a quite strong common sense test irrespective of the intelligence that suggests that the regime carried this out. do we have a picture or do we have irrefutable beyond a reasonable doubt evidence? this is not a court of law. and intelligence does not work that way. so what we do know and what we know the common sense test says is he is responsible for this. he should be held to account. >> i want to play you something the president said friday when he spoke about why he asked for a congressional authorization of this. >> i think we will be more effective and stronger if in fact congress authorizes this action. >> is the opposite also true that if congress does not authorize this action it will be less effective and weaker? >> look over the course of our

history. that's the strength of the war powers resolution. that's the strength of the constitution. >> without congressional approval, would the president's hand be weaker? would a strike be less effective? is the opposite of that statement true? >> the statement stands on its own. there's no question about it. together we're stronger. history shows us that. not only in damascus and syria but in iran and other places as well. >> i want to play a little bit for you of an ad from moveon.org. they put out an ad urging congress to vote no on a strike in syria. >> what should america expect if we rush into syria alone with no plan for the consequences? we already know. it gets worse. congress, most americans oppose missile strikes in syria. don't lead us down this road again. >> it argues that we didn't

think we'll be in iraq for as long as we were there. we didn't think we would be in afghanistan as long as we were. we are still there. why is this different? >> let's go back and look at any number of things. i just told you there's not a single member of congress debating intelligence with us right now. fact is that was not the case in iraq. i was there and i saw that one up close and personal. we are very disciplined about what we're talking about here. we're not talking about regime change. we're not talking about occupation. we're not talking about boots on the ground. the president has been very clear that there will be no boots on the ground. this is about targeted limited consequential action to deter and degrade so he doesn't carry out terrible attacks. the attacks that you showed here on your station throughout the day yesterday. >> so the mission is to deter chemical attacks and degrade his ability to do so. let me just quickly ask you about this iran component. i'm confused by in idea that somehow the u.s. backing up words with a missile strike into

syria sends a message to iran. we went to iraq with more than 100,000 troops. we took out a leader. it didn't affect their behavior at all. why would a missile strike in syria do so? >> a couple different reasons. number one, let's remember the iranians have a particular history with chemical weapons. the receiver, by the way, of attacks of chemical weapons and not sender. they are very focused on what's happening in syria. we have plenty of reason to believe that they are very uncomfortable with what their ally chose to do here. as importantly, when we lay down and international community lays down a red line as we have now seven times in security council resolutions against the iranians saying they cannot develop nuclear weapons and they continue to do it, we have to make sure they don't misinterpret where the west is and misinterpret how we react to syria that they have greater operating space or wiggle room as it relates to the nuclear

program. >> they didn't seem deterred when we went into iraq. let's talk about the risk. you are right. i don't care people saying i'm not sure this evidence is strong enough. here's what i hear. what's the mission. you just defined that. what are the risks? what did the president weigh when he decided a strike was something he needed to do? >> the risks are many fold. one, the risk that somehow we get dragged into the middle of an ongoing civil war. for more than two years now, the president has been very restrained. his restraint is evidence of our strength in this. we have to obviously be very careful and very targeted and very limited in our engagement so we do not get dragged into the middle of this. and then there's obviously risk of reaction and retaliation against our friends. we are obviously providing for it and planning for every contingency in that regard and we'll be ready for that. but part of why we are being very clear about the targeted limited nature of this, no boots on the ground, this is not iraq or afghanistan, this is not libya.

this is not an extended air campaign. this is something that's targeted and limited and effective so as to underscore that he should not think he can get away with this again. >> you have said a couple times as has the president no boots on the ground. will there be pilots in the air over syria? >> i won't get into operational details like that. >> so neither yes or no. secretary kerry said history will judge us all extraordinarily harshly if we turn a blind eye to a dictator's wanton use of weapons of mass destruction against all warnings. in the end, all of you from up to and including the president have said the president can do this without congressional approval. given what the secretary of state has said are consequences here, it is difficult to believe that you all aren't signaling that, yes, you will go ahead regardless of what congress does. >> look, i would say two things. in terms of turning a blind eye, i hope before any member of congress makes his decision on how to vote, they take a look at

that video that you all made available to the world yesterday. take a look at that and try to turn away from that. that's one. two, our consultation with congress and the president's request for authorization is not an empty exercise. you have seen what we're doing. you see the effort that we're going through. >> given the stakes you are outlining and secretary outlined, how can you do anything other than strike even if congress tells you not to. >> this is what the president said. if members of congress want to answer that question to say there should be consequences for this action, then they're going to have to vote yes. >> thank you for joining us. >> nice to be here. >> reality is votes are not there. 25 senators indicate they'll vote yes. 20 are opposed to intervention. 55 still undecided. in the house, passage looks more remote. 24 members backing the president. 123 opposed. that includes 23 democrats and

100 republicans. 288 house members are still undecided. i'm joined now by three members of the house, buck mckeon. his committee begins hearings on syria on tuesday. and representative marsha blackburn opposed to intervention which puts them in alliance with the congressional progressive alliance and jim mcgovern is here as well. i want to talk about some of the things that denis had to say and first to you, congressman mckeon. have you seen any intelligence that directly links assad to this chemical weapons strike and do you need it? >> i've seen what they've shown us and they have evidence showing the regime has probably the responsibility for the attacks. they haven't linked it directly

to assad in my estimation. >> so is probably good enough? because it was probably that saddam hussein had weapons of mass destruction and he didn't. is probably good enough in this case? >> assad used them almost a year ago and we didn't get involved then. probably should have done something sooner. it's a little late. and i'm not sure -- 100,000 people have been killed. about 1,400 by chemical weapons or a few more. it is a tragedy all of the way around. it's immoral to be using chemical weapons obviously against your own people. by the same token, i'm concerned about the morality of sending our troops into harm's way without providing for the things they need. the president in the last couple of years has sent -- has done

the surge in afghanistan while cutting the military budget. flew missions over libya while cutting the military budget. changed to a specific tragedy while cutting the military budget and now this. we're asking them to do more with less. i think there's moral responsibility that we have to our troops. >> i want to follow up on that in a bit. i want to give each of you to chime in on our first part about what the chief of staff had to say. you had said i just don't know what the mission is here. your inclination is to vote no. we heard denis mcdonough say this is the mission. we are going to degrade assad's ability to use chemical weapons and deter him from doing so. that's our mission. is that good enough? >> that's not good enough for me. every mission should be clearly defined and then you need execution of what that strategy is going to be and then you need to know what that exit strategy is going to be. and i don't see that. as the chairman said repeatedly,

this president is saying do more with less even to the point that the day before he starts saying let's go to syria, he cuts their pay and they're going to get less than they were expecting. i think part of the crisis is what is being done to the funding of our military. >> again, i do want to talk about funding of the military. i want to ask you because i know that you intend to vote no at this point on a resolution. can you look your commander in chief, the leader of the western world, who has come to congress and said we need to do this, we have an obligation to do this and tell him no? >> i'm a big supporter of president obama's. i have great admiration for him and i support him on almost everything. sometimes friends can disagree. >> this is a big one. >> this is a big one. the point of the matter is this is not a question about party loyalty. this is a question for all of us about what is right.

this is about a conscience. is the most effective thing to do? i'm troubled not just with the administration but by the international community and the international organizations that there's this lack of imagination, the inability to think out of the box about alternatives here. there are two choices. do nothing or bomb syria. clearly there have to be other choices in between. we ought to explore them. >> let me ask all three. has anybody seen any evidence that somehow the u.s. -- whatever u.s. service men are involved, whatever equipment are involved, will not be funded properly for this particular mission? there's no evidence of that. i understand that in general you have a concern about the military budget. >> all i've heard is that something as important as this they'll find money for. it has to come from somewhere else. if they're not going to have enough money for the training

and equipping of our people. >> and redeployment readiness. >> and an argument to say we don't have money for it but they'll find money. >> if we go to war in syria, we'll borrow the money. we talk about the debt that we have. the big chunk of the debt is these war costs. >> i want to ask you three to standby. we'll be right back. when we return, saying no to the president and what it means for the united states' position in the world. that's up next. [ steyer ] there's been a lot of talk about transcanada's proposal

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said we were going to take it to congress. >> what it will mean if congress rejects the president's request with our lawmakers next. ♪ [ male announcer ] when we built the cadillac ats from the ground up to be the world's best sport sedan... ♪ ...people noticed. ♪ the cadillac ats -- 2013 north american car of the year. lease this cadillac ats for around $299 per month with premium care maintenance included.

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clearly administration wants people to see the tapes. these are horrific. these are babies dying of sarin gas attack. is this something that will move you or your constituents from what you heard back home? >> with my district with major military post with the nation's largest community of courage, we all see this. we all agree that what assad or rebels have done is horrific. but we also know that to go in and do this in syria, the military is immoral. it is immoral to continue to ask our men and women in the military to go out without the equipment, the training, the readiness and funds to do this. >> they'll get the equipment. >> these tapes break my heart. and it's awful. there's a terrible humanitarian crisis going on in syria. a lot of it is perpetrated by assad. rebels are responsible for it. all of these refugee camps.

the issue isn't is it terrible? what can we do to be helpful. going in and bombing syria will help those suffering people. it will increase suffering. it will not get us closer to a political settlement which the president says he wants. >> i have 31 grandchildren. seeing pictures of the children lying there dead is heart wrenching. no question about it. the other day after the meeting at the white house, the president said i know how concerned you are about sequestration. so am i. i asked for a meeting with the president. i'm waiting to hear back from the white house. i want to sit down and talk to him about this. i cannot guarantee that we can get votes for it. i know that a lot of people have the same concerns that i do and if we can fix this, it may help some people in their vote. >> it seems and all of you expressed this concern, it seems

like there is one issue and then there is the other. are you willing to vote against the president if he won't agree to somehow rejuvenate the military by dealing with the budget cuts. >> it's leadership. it is a lack of leadership on the president's part. in my district friday, 120,000 contacts in our district and only three were for action in syria. the president has not made his case. he's not defined the mission. there is not the support from the american people. >> could he make the case? is there something he could say? >> this isn't about rejuvenating the military. the question is whether it's the right thing to do and effective thing to do. i don't believe that's the case. there have to be other alternatives out there. >> and long-term ramifications of something. >> i don't look at it as a vote against the president. i look at it as a vote for our men and women in uniform who

keep being asked to do more with less. >> if i were the president, i would withdraw my request for authorization at this particular point. i don't believe the support is there in congress. people view war as a last resort. i don't think people think that we're at that point. i would step back a little bit. we have other issues we have to deal with in congress. domestic and international. i think at this point if you asked for my advice, i would say withdraw authorization. >> the hesitancy has not served them well. >> real quickly. is there anything the president could say that would convince you to say yes on this other than on the defense budget? >> fix sequestration. >> sequester. >> he has to convince me this was effective and this is the right thing to do. i'm not there. >> all right. thank you all so much. i appreciate you being here. when we return, new alliances form on capitol hill as liberal democrats and conservative republicans find common ground

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od. helping the world keep promises. let's just say americans are giving congress an earful on syria. >> we sent you to stop the war. >> i think we should stay the hell out of there. >> this is not the first red line that we have drawn and he's crossed. >> he's been crossing red lines for 2 1/2 years. >> i say we bail out and say you guys are on your own. >> the possibility of primary challengers and voter backlash may affect their vote on syria. our political panel is up next. where's mrs. davis? she took an early spring break thanks to her double miles from the capital one venture card.

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joining me now, david frum, a ana navarro, stephy cutter and van jones. "crossfire" is coming up. let's talk about public support for this. is there anything this president can say on tuesday night that is going to move this mountain? >> the president has already put himself into a desperately bad situation.

he said this is a free vote for you. your constituents don't want you to go to war. but there's a part of you that wants to do something about chemical weapons. i'm telling you that if you can vote no and i may still do it any way. so the line of least resistance for the careerist and unheroic member of congress and there are some of those is to vote no and hope the president goes ahead any way. >> we have seen this president give good speeches when he's on. he hasn't been on. all he's done so far is tell us everything this is not but not tell us why we're doing this and what we're doing and how we're affecting the world. i think the president he's got is the timing is a killer here. there is already 100 plus announced no votes in congress. i think that even if he levitates and speaks in tongues on tuesday night, the no votes will not change. >> should you agree the president is not great on pushing this? >> he's tried to be half hawk and half dove.

he's not hawkish enough for doves and not dovish enough for the doves. half hawk half dove doesn't fly in washington d.c. that's what we're seeing. >> half hearted about it all. >> fair enough. i am shocked to hear republicans -- my whole adult life i never heard of a war they didn't like or military strike they didn't like and to now you have this president adopting mitt romney's policy in syria and republicans are deserting him on mitt romney's muscular policy in syria. there's something that doesn't smell right to me. i'm against the car but to see republicans suddenly finding every excuse in the book not to be there for the president is weird. >> republicans opposed kosovo and bosnia for similar reasons. republicans go to war for national security interests. when you have a war like kosovo where the president says we're going here for the general good of humanity but not for something america gets, republicans get kwequeasy about that. >> republicans have turned the

paini page. time for you to turn the page. it's disendisengeneralous to ma this a partisan argument. >> there are democrats voting for it because it is president obama. it's politics, okay. that's fine. it's part of the equation. >> does it matter if public opinion runs against this? should it matter? >> of course it matters. of course it matters. when you are using military action, we are not launching a war here. this is a limited strike tois m program to deter assad from using again but also deter others watching this closely prosecute using chemical weapons so the united states means what it says. there are consequences to violating this international norm that's been in place for a very long time with 98% of the world population signed onto. now, you always want to use military strikes with the

american people behind you. let's face reality here. this is a fatigued country when it comes to war for very good reason. we've been at war for over a decade. some of it was fumbled. i'm not trying to place blame on a previous president, those are realities that we're dealing with. that's particularly why the president went to congress. he knows how grave the decisions are and wants american people behind him. now, does commander in chief have the ability to act even when the american people aren't behind him or without congressional authorization? yes, he does. will this president do that? i don't know. >> let me ask you a question here. let's say congress says no. forget what the president then does. what does that do to him for the rest of the agenda? >> it means his intervention which he can still go ahead with and has legal right to do it, but it had before be 100% successful. it will be even worse if he goes with support of one house where his party is majority and loses the other.

in that case, the deal will be if this works exactly the way stephanie said it would be, limited strikes, precisely stated end and do not put united states into a situation where either the syrian regime falls leaving with us a mess or it doesn't fall inviting america to go in deeper but the coin lands exactly on its edge and stays there, he's a big winner. if that coin lands heads or tails and we get outcome that the president says he does not want, he'll have political trouble. >> there are other things on the agenda. >> he's going to have to act. domestically if he doesn't, at that point congress knows what a weak president he is. he'll go to establishing a new high bar to what it means to being a lame duck. it would be devastating for rest of his agenda. >> do you agree with that analysis? >> i think that this is not a static debate. one thing i do agree with if congress does not approve this resolution, it's a blow to the

united states. not a blow to the president. it's a blow to the united states authority all over this world. it's a blow to our authority all over this world. and unprecedented. that's why you're going to see some members of congress vote for that particular reason. some said they're voting for that particular reason. i believe that's your position as well. >> let me say a couple things as well. if he does not get this vote, he should not go to war. he shouldn't treat the congress of the united states like a focus group. however, things will continue to change. >> that's not what the president is doing. the president is doing this so that we can approach this issue, this problem, this threat to our own security with one voice. we're stronger when we do that. he's not using congress for a focus group. that's insulting. >> i don't think the president of the united states uses congress as a focus group. there will be other beats in the story. the president should preserve the ability to respond to those. >> any way the president cannot go if congress says no? john kerry is comparing assad to hitler and saying history will

never forgive us if we don't do something? >> do you remember john kerry's speeches before the president made the decision to go to congress. we all thought action was imminent. i think if anything we learned not to try to predict what this president is going to do. >> action was imminent. the president then decided to go to congress so that this country would be speaking with a stronger voice. what is true then is still true now. assad has used chemical weapons in violation of an international agreement and the president never made an argument that there was an imminent threat. kerry never made an argument there was an imminent threat. >> secretary kerry went on sunday shows last sunday to praise the president's decision as courageous and that's not a compliment. >> we didn't go to war until march of 2003. and that was argued to be actually an imminent threat unlike this particular situation. >> if he changed his mind, he went on a 45-minute walk with

mcdonough. >> they were discussing on whether or not to go to congress. >> nobody knows how this president operates. >> thank you all for coming. to be continued. when we return, 2 million syrian refugees fled their war ravaged country across the border with lebanon. our own dr. sanjay gupta gives us a firsthand look at what they face. that's next. [ male announcer ] what's important to you? at humana, our medicare agents sit down with you and ask. being active. and being with this guy.

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coming up from standing on the sidelines over iraq to standing side by side over syria. france is backing obama on military strikes.

and the civil war creating camps for refugees. they are being charged to stay there. sanjay gupta reports from lebanon.

hey guys, thanks for coming. are we in trouble? no, you're not in trouble. i just want to set some ground rules. like what? well, remember last week, when you hit vinnie in the head with a shovel? [chuckling] i do not recall that. of course not. well, it was pretty graphic. too graphic for the kids. so i'm going to have to block you. you know, i gotta make this up to you. this is vinnie's watch, and i want you to have it. you deserve it. no, thank you. t@at's really not necessary. no, no, come here... you. overshadowed in the debate about syria is what's happening to millions of people who are fleeing their war-torn country. dr. sanjay gupta has been getting a firsthand look at their plight in the refugee

camps on the syrian/lebanon border. >> reporter: it was after this occurred to her middle son, 4-year-old yusif, she knew she had to leave. it was an explosion, she told me, that led to these burns. she packed up her three sons and what little she had and traveled 12 hours, mostly by foot, to arrive here at this camp. it's one of the largest along the syrian/lebanese border. the youngest son a lcllah is 8 months old and is severely malnourished even though he's breast-fed. how difficult is it to get food? >> it's tough when the mom hasn't gotten the food she needs. make no mistake, lebanon is buckling under the weight of the

refugees who arrive here every 15 seconds. in this country of over four million, the united nations say there are some 720,000 registered refugees but doctors here believe the number to be more than twice that. >> it's very, very a lot. very a lot. >> reporter: more than one in every four people in lebanon is a refugee, he tells me. and it's the people living in these surrounding communities that is seconding messages to the refugees in these camps. this will never be your home. this can never be your home. the children's smiles be lie an awful and not being wanted or adopted in their wanted one. there are no fixed water facilities or sanitation. instead, just the steady stream of sewage snaking its way through this 5,000 person camp. they have lost everything, their material possessions, their

dignity, their permanent nans. to simply live like this, aid groups say refugee groups are required to pay $100 a month to the town share. the only way to work is to send these young kids into the field to work for $2 a day. it is heart wrenching. within these camps, there's a constant friction between two groups, those who support the syrian regime and those who hate it. but they do share something in common. they all want to go home. a are. kin and her three sons, they can't wait to leave. >> so sanjay, totally understand but looking at those conditions and how long of them have been there, that these refugees do want to go home, do you get any sense that they have a feel for what we believe is an impending u.s. strike? do they support it, not support it? >> you know, it's interesting

because unlike the rest of the world, they don't really have much access to news. a lot of what is happening there in terms of their own information is by word of mouth. but you don't hear a lot about that as much as you hear this notion again at the end of the piece that they just do want to go home. i don't know that they know it's going to happen or what difference is will make but the difference they are in now is not tenable for that. >> sanjay gupta, thanks for being there for us. to find out how you can help the more than two million syrian refugees, visit cnn.com/impact. we'll be right back. you'll experience reliable uptime for the network and services you depend on. multi-layered security solutions keep your information safe, and secure. and responsive dedicated support meets your needs, and eases your mind.

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thank you for watching "state of the union." i'm candy crowley in washington. head to cnn.com/schl otu. at noon, members of the own party are not lining up to support military strikes in syria. we'll talk to jerry conly of virginia and barbara lee of california and delaware senator chris coons will tell us what convinced him to vote for the

resolution. tomorrow at 6:00 p.m., president obama will sit down with our own wolf blitzer and the return of "crossfire." if you missed any part of today, head to itunes and search "state of the union." fareed zakaria is next. this is gps, the global public square. welcome to you in the united states and around the world. i'm fareed zakaria. we're going to get you one step ahead on understanding the crisis in syria. we have put together our own war room, a national security council of senior officials from recent administrations that is assembled and ready to take us through the path ahead for president obama. we have general wesley clark, james steinberg, and nicholas burns. then, a critical question. can president obama take action without congress? should he hav