Senators ‘unnerved’ by Trump’s Syria policy 01:30
Washington (CNN)Lawmakers emerged from a classified administration briefing on Tuesday expressing concern about administration policy on Syria and the legal justification for last week’s military strikes against the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
“I am very unnerved by what I’m hearing and seeing,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, who said the briefing on the strikes from, Defense Secretary James Mattis and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, made him more worried, not less. The administration is “going down a dangerous path” with regards to Syria, he said, without offering details.
Graham told reporters that the administration has no military strategy to counter Iranian and Russian influence and seems willing “to give Syria to Assad, Russia, and Iran.”
“I think Assad, after this strike, believes we’re all tweet and no action,” Graham said.
Washington, along with London and Paris, launched airstrikes in the wee hours of Syria’s Saturday morning in response for an April 7 attack on the rebel stronghold of Douma that killed about 75 people, including children, and left another 500 in need of treatment for symptoms consistent with chemical weapons exposure.
The strike came just 10 days after President Donald Trump had said he wanted to get out of Syria, raising confusion about administration policy.
“I want to get out,” Trump said during an April 3 news conference. “I want to bring our troops back home. It’s time.”
But on April 13, when he announced the strikes, Trump said the US would be undertaking a sustained diplomatic, military and economic response to stop the use of chemical weapons, and officials said the US would remain focused on defeating ISIS.
Senators leaving Tuesday’s briefing seemed to indicate that Trump’s isolationist impulses are going to win out, regardless of the consequences for US global influence, American national security interests or the fate of the region, where Iran is vying for larger influence and Russia has established itself as a power broker, edging out the US.
Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware left the meeting and told reporters, “The only thing worse than a bad plan on Syria is no plan on Syria, and the President and his administration have failed to deliver a coherent plan on the path forward.”
“I think it’s important for us to remain engaged in Syria and to pursue a diplomatic resolution,” Coons said. “If we completely withdraw, our leverage in any diplomatic resolution or reconstruction or any hope for a post-Assad Syria goes away.”
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Categories: America, Americas, Arab World, Asia, United States
Mission accomplished: Syria destroyed and destabilized.