Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum says he was once for military action in Syria, but has determined that “a military strike would no longer be in our national security interest” because President Obama waited too long.
“Nearly a year and a half ago when the atrocities in Syria first came to light, I advocated for military intervention to take out the Assad regime in Syria, a satellite state of Iran,” the former Pennsylvania senator said in a statement Thursday. “Had President Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acted then in support of pro-democracy forces when that rebellion was taking place, we could have removed Assad and helped usher in stability for that country.”
“But we have a very different situation today,” he continued. “After nearly two years, 100,000 people killed, a rebel force comprised of al Qaeda and a Syrian regime in a much stronger position, a military strike would no longer be in our national security interest.”
He accused Obama of putting “an arbitrary line in the sand when he made an ill-advised blanket statement about retaliating against the use of chemical weapons without the context of our national security interests.”
“It is clear that President Obama himself now realizes the line he drew was reckless, because he’s looking for Congress to share the burden by authorizing the use of force,” he said. “If he firmly believed in his own policy, he would have already acted in Syria.”
Santorum said his political organization, Patriot Voices, is asking its members to contact their senators and representatives to vote against any resolution that would authorize use of force in Syria.