after international pressure mounted, then president obama said bashir assad should go. it's been over a year. the man has slaughtered tens of thousands of his own people. and more foreign fighters are spilling into this country. so the longer this has gone on, the more people -- groups like al qaeda are going in. we could have more easily identified the free syrian army, the freedom fighters, working with our allies, the turks, the qataris, the saudis, had we had a better plan in place to begin with working through our allies. but no, we waited for kofi annan to try to come up with an agreement through the u.n. that bought bashir assad time. we gave russia veto power over our efforts through the u.n. and meanwhile about 30,000 syrians are dead. >> what would my friend do differently? if you notice, he never answers the question. >> no. we would not be going through the u.n. in all of these things. >> you don't go through the u.n. we are in the process now and have been for months in making sure that help, humanitarian aid as well as other aid and training is getting to

iran is flying flights over iraq to help -- >> the opposition is being armed -- >> to help bashir assad. if we had the status of forces agreement the vice president said he would bet his vice-presidency on in iraq we probably would have been able to prevent that. he failed to achieve that as well. >> let me ask you, what's your criteria for intervention? >> in syria? >> worldwide? >> what is in the national interests of the american people. the national interests of the american people. it has to be in the strategic interests of our country. >> no humanitarian? >> each situation will come up with its own set of circumstances but putting american troops on the ground, that's got to be within the national security interests of the american people. >> i want to reiterate, we're almost out of time. >> embargoes and sanctions and overflights, those are not putting american troops on the ground. american troops on the ground, only in our national interests. >> i want to move on and return home for these last two questions. this debate is indeed historic. we have two catholic candidates, first

to work with other nations to arm rebels in syria with reupons that can defeat bashir al assad's army. at a rally in florida, romney promised to be a strong international leader if elected. >> when i'm president oil take the care it takes to rebuild our principles and restore the principles that made america strong. >> reporter: the republican nominee couldn't resist taking another shot at the president's debate performance. >> now of course days later we're hearing his excuses and next january we'll watch him leave the white house for the last time. >> reporter: there's two more debates schedule. later this week is the vice presidential debate. now the obama camp is dismissing the romney speech saying it's a third or fourth time to explain his intentions. >> there are two presidential debates left in campaign 2012. but on thursday the vice presidential candidates go head-to-head. usually there's little attention paid to the debate between vp candidates but as bill plante reports this year is different. roll it's biden versus ryan. age versus youth. a great society liberal. >> we're g

parliament condemned the bombings referring to the rebels as terrorists trying to out of president bashir al assad. lipo has seen intense fighting but been rarely the target of suicide attacks. the kploegs triggered panic among some residents who just want the conflict to end. >> it's been three weeks since the u.s. consulate in benghazi, libya was attacked. four americans were killed. there are questions and criticism of the u.s. response to the attack. congress is opening its own investigation. at the state department margaret brennan reports secretary clinton promises a full accounting. >> reporter: were there requests for increase in security in been gazay and did your office reject those requests? >> let me start by cautioning everyone against seizing on any single statement or piece of information to draw a final conclusion. over the course of this review there will naturally be a number of statements made, some of it -- some of which will be borne out and some of which will not. >> reporter: clinton and her aides have consistently pointed to intelligence reports that indicated there was no

we wouldn't refer to bashir al assad as a reformer, when he's killing his own civilians with his russian provided weapons. we wouldn't be outsourcing our foreign policy to the united nations given vladimir putin veto power over our efforts to try and deal with this issue. he's vetoed three of them. hillary clinton went to russia to try and convince them not to do so. they thwarted her efforts. she said they were on the wrong side of history. she was right about that. this is one more example of how the russia reset is not working. where are we? after international pressure mounted, president obama said bashar al assad should go. it's been over a year. the man has slaughtered tens of thousands of his own people. and more foreign fighters are spilling into this country. so the longer this has gone on, the more people, groups like al qaeda are going in. we could have more easily identified the free syrian army, the freedom fighters, working with our allies, the turks, the saudis, had we had a better plan in place to begin with working through our allies. but, no, we waited for kofi annan to

who, in fact, will provide for a stable government and not cause a regional sunni-shia war when bashir assad. >> nobody is proposing to send american troops to syria. let me say it this way. how would we do things differently? we wouldn't refer to bashar assad as a reformer when he is killing his own civilians with his russian-provided weapons. we wouldn't be outsourcing our foreign policy to the united nations giving vladimir putin veto power over our efforts to try and deal with this issue. he has vetoed three of them. hillary clinton went to russia to try and convince him not to do so. they thwarted her efforts. they said she was on the wrong side of history. they were right about that. where are we? after international pressure mounted, then president obama said bashar assad should go. it's been over a year. the man has slaughtered tens of thousands of his own people, and more foreign fighters are spilling into this country. so the longer this has gone on, the more people -- groups like al qaeda are going in. we could have more easily identified the free syrian army, the freedom fighters

people were killed in fighting overnight between supporters and opponents of the syrian president bashir assads that starts to spill over. martha: well, governor romney's campaign is now claiming that president obama's re-election team is resorting to quote, small-minded attacks out there like big bird and the like. both campaigns went head-to-head on "face the nation." watch. >> they reduced themselves to small attacks. take "romnesia" is quite frankly silly of the president of the united states, leader of free world to begin uttering and talk about binders. talk about big bird. all of that is really indicative of a candidate that doesn't have a vision for the future. governor romney has a plan for the future whereas over the next four years we don't know what president obama would do. >> big bird is important because that is only thing that mitt romney could point to as how he will reduce the deficit. deficits are a big issue in this campaign. i think you would agree with mow. >> they're a big issue of the president. >> that is not true, kevin. the governor's running mate actually voted for

he was an opponent of syrian president bashir al assad. the bomb exploded in central beirut. people rushed to put out fires as the remains of vehicles littered the street. along with the dead the explosion wounded more than 70 others. local media said he played a role in detaining a cabinet minister that supported assad. >> i think this is a message we should convey today and say whatever we are, whether we are from the opposition, from the majority, from this or that group, we refuse these kinds of acts. >> no one has claimed responsibility for the attack. >>> the effort the end syria's civil war ramps up again this weekend. the united nations is in damascus asked for a temporary cease-fire. the meeting with syria's foreign minister and is expected to sit down with president assad. he'll repeat his call for government forces and opposition fighters to put down their weapons during the upcoming islamic festival. >> translator: we will talk about the cease-fire and the syrian issue in general. it's important to decrease the violence. we will talk with the government and politi