Even though President Obama delayed his golf outing Saturday to announce that he will solicit authorization from Congress before launching a military attack on Syria, there are reports out of Washington that this is but a formality.

In a move that only adds to the utter confusion that defines the president’s foreign policy, a senior State Department official tells Fox News that Obama’s decision to take military action in Syria still stands, and will indeed be carried out, regardless of whether Congress votes next week to approve the use of such force.

Chief Washington correspondent James Rosen reported that this official said Obama’s decision to seek a congressional vote was a surprise to members of the National Security Council, but insisted the request for Congress to vote did not supplant the president’s earlier decision to use force in Syria, only delayed its implementation.

“That’s going to happen, anyway,” the source told Rosen, adding that that was why the president, in his Rose Garden remarks, was careful to establish that he believes he has the authority to launch such strikes without congressional authorization.

Why would “a senior State Department official be so forthcoming?

There were suggestions that Secretary of State Kerry “lost” to the chairman of the Joint chiefs of Staff in the interagency process and this was a way to refute this claim, according to Fox News.

“Absolutely untrue,” the Kerry aide said, adding that everything Kerry said in his dramatic remarks on Friday was after “fully consulting with the White House.”

Sounds like business as usual in the Obama administration.

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