U.S. Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said President Obama’s comments on CBS about the decision not to use military force in Syria are “completely divorced from reality.”
“The president is contradicting his own decision to request congressional authorization for the use of military force in Syria, saying a few strikes would not have made a difference. This new version of events is completely divorced from reality, coming six months after he called for military force in order to ‘stand up for the kind of world we want to live in; the kind of world we want to leave our children and future generations.’ It was my understanding that in degrading the Assad’s regime ability to deliver chemical weapons, the additional benefit was changing the balance on the battlefield that would have been a significant boost to the moderate opposition,” said Corker.
In announcing his decision to seek authorization for targeted strikes in Syria on August 31, 2013, President Obama said, “I’m confident we can hold the Assad regime accountable for their use of chemical weapons, deter this kind of behavior, and degrade their capacity to carry it out.”
The president added: “I respect the views of those who call for caution…But if we really do want to turn away from taking appropriate action in the face of such an unspeakable outrage, then we must acknowledge the costs of doing nothing.”
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