Top
Republicans who opposed Syria attack under Obama are now praising Trump's
strike
Sen. Marco Rubio, who called
Trump's actions "the right move" in an interview with CNN on Friday, said of Obama's proposal in 2013, "While I have long
argued forcefully for engagement in empowering the Syrian people, I have never
supported the use of U.S. military force in the conflict. And I still
don't."
He added, "I remain unconvinced
that the use of force proposed here will work. The only thing that will prevent
Assad from using chemical weapons in the future is for the Syrian people to
remove him from power. The strike the administration wants us to approve I do
not believe furthers that goal. And in fact, I believe U.S. military action of
the type contemplated here might prove to be counterproductive."
A spokesperson for Rubio pointed
CNN's KFile to his appearance Friday on "TODAY," where he explained
what he saw as the differences between 2013 and now.
"This is not similar to 2013
for a lot of reasons," he said. "Assad was actually losing the war in
'13, and if we had supported some of the elements on the ground that were not
jihadists, he may have very well fallen. The Russians got involved in '15 — changed
the dynamics. We also didn't have American troops in Syria in 2013 -- we do
now. That gives us a national security interest as well."
No comments:
Post a Comment