St. Augustine Republican opposed to getting involved
Editor's Note: Congressman Ron DeSantis, R-St. Augustine, issues his weekly message this week on his continued opposition to U.S. military involvement in Syria. Here is his message:
Video for Headline Surfer / Congressman Ron DeSantis questions Secrtetary of State John Kerry during an emergency hearing Wednesday in Washington.
ST.AUGUSTINE -- Thank you to the hundreds of constituents who have called and e-mailed my office regarding the ongoing situation in Syria.
As your representative, listening to you is my number one priority and your opposition to a military strike in Syria was heard loud and clear.
Accordingly, I do not support authorizing President Obama to use military force in the Syrian civil war.
The Administration has not articulated a clear objective for using military force in Syria, much less a plan to achieve that objective. This is all the more problematic given the realities of a Syrian civil war in which Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship (supported by Iran and Hezbollah) is fighting so-called rebels that are populated with Sunni Islamic supremacists and Al Qaeda fighters.
In other words, the United States does not have an interest in assisting either side of the conflict or in refereeing a civil war amongst these warring anti-American factions.
Moreover, there is a danger that an ill-planned or half-hearted American attack could make it easier for terrorist groups to obtain the very type of chemical weapons that Al Qaeda and other groups have long sought to use against America.
Moreover, there is a danger that an ill-planned or half-hearted American attack could make it easier for terrorist groups to obtain the very type of chemical weapons that Al Qaeda and other groups have long sought to use against America.
On Wednesday, I flew to Washington, DC for an emergency House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing on Syria where I had the opportunity to question Secretary of State John Kerry on issues surrounding the authorization of military involvement in the Syrian civil war.
These questions were in regards to how we could justify an attack in Syria following the use of sarin when the death of four Americans in Benghazi attack did not warrant one, whether an attack would cause Iran to discontinue its nuclear program (which I do not believe would be the case), and whether there is any chance that a pro-Western government could emerge in Syria following U.S. involvement (given the number of bad actors involved in the civil war, I believe the chance is virtually nonexistent).