Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Marco Rubio endorses arming al-Qaeda in Syria
News broke last week that the Obama Administration decided further its involvement in the Syrian civil war by arming rebels fighting against Bashar Assad’s regime. The development was well-received by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and John McCain (R-AZ), two of Washington’s most hawkish politicians. But increasing our intervention in Syria remains a hot topic among conservatives, especially among two who may seek the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 2016.
This past weekend at the Faith Freedom Coalition’s conference in Washington, DC, two very distinict foreign policy agendas were put before conservatives. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) took a skeptical approach to Syria, explaining that intervention there doesn’t serve America’s interests. And it would seem that Americans overwhelmingly agree with that sentiment.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) endorsed the idea of an active approach to foreign policy, though he didn’t mention Syria specifically. However, he didn’t skip around the issue during an appearance on This Week:
During an exclusive interview on “This Week,” Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio criticized President Obama for not intervening sooner in Syria’s civil war, saying the inaction has led to the “worst possible scenario” in the war-torn country.
“It behooved us to kind of identify whether there was elements there within Syria fighting against Assad that we could work with, reasonable people that wouldn’t carry out human rights violations, and could be part of building a new Syria. We failed to do that. This president failed to do that,” Rubio told ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl.
“The fact that it’s taken this White House and this president so long to get a clear and concise policy on Syria has left us with the worst possible scenario right now,” Rubio added.
“So now your options are quite limited. Now the strongest groups fighting against Assad, unfortunately, are al Qaeda-linked elements. That doesn’t mean that they all are, but it certainly — this group has become the most organized, the best armed, the best equipped. Our options are now really narrower than they were a few months ago,” he said.
As noted, furthering our involvement is a terrible idea. America has no interest in Syria and our involvement will do little more than help install a new government with ties to Islamic radicals who will be openly hostile to the United States. One need only look to Libya and the assault on the American outpost in Benghazi for a recent example of that.
Additionally, American taxpayers shouldn’t be funding a group that is identified as a terrorist organization with ties to al-Qaeda. CNN reported yesterday that the situation may be more dire than Rubio and other realize.
Full article: http://www.unitedlib … ng-al-qaeda-in-syria
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