Steve Stockman Says He'll Support Syria Strike If Obama Returns Nobel Peace Prize

Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) said that he's willing to reverse his opposition on a military strike against Syria if President Barack Obama agrees to answer a number of questions, including whether the president is willing to return his Nobel Peace Prize.

In a Tuesday statement, Stockman said he'd "like to offer President Obama a deal" ahead of his national address on the Syria conflict.

“I am prepared to vote in favor of Obama’s folly if he can fully and truthfully answer eleven questions about the Syria operation and his bungling of it," Stockman said.

The Republican congressman offered 11 questions from Obama, including:

• "What assurances do you have that Syria’s chemical weapons will be secured, other than trusting Bashar al-Assad, Vladimir Putin and the competence of the United Nations?"

• "Should Assad fall NATO cannot guarantee that control of Syria will not fall to al-Qaeda and affiliated extremists. Do you know something they don’t?"

• "We are now receiving almost-daily reports of anti-Assad militants attacking Christian churches, burning Christian villages and killing Syrian Christians. Why should the United States assist these criminals against humanity?"

• “Are you willing to return your Nobel Peace Prize?”

A Stockman spokesman told The Hill that Obama would "indeed" have to answer "yes" to the Nobel Prize question in order to receive the congressman's support.

Stockman, who was elected in 2012 after a 16-year hiatus from Congress, has earned a reputation as an outspoken critic of the president. After a rodeo clown sparked controversy in Missouri by wearing an Obama mask, Stockman invited him to perform in Texas. And in February, he invited rocker Ted Nugent -- who said the previous spring he'd be "dead or in jail by this time next year" if Obama was reelected-- to the president's State of the Union address.