Public, Congressmen Leery of Military Action on Syria

Submitted by Anonymous on September 4, 2013 - 11:20am

While President Barack Obama tries to convince Congress that military action against Syria is worth the risk, the American public doesn't seem to be too on board with the possibility.

On Tuesday, a Washington Post-ABC News poll showed there is significant opposition to a missile strike in Syria, with 59 percent of Americans opposing the idea. A majority of both Democrats and Republicans oppose the proposal, and Obama's position on the matter doesn't seem to be a driving factor for support or opposition either way.

Several Republican congressmen have publicly spoken out against military action in Syria. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., spoke out against military action and noted that the public is also not convinced military action is the correct step to take in response to a chemical weapons attack.

"I haven't had one person come up to me and say they are for this war," he said."I don't think anybody really doubts that there was a chemical attack. We just differ exactly on what the response should be."

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., seemed concerned about the possibility that Syria's instability will cause problems in the U.S., but also believes the Obama administration has had some serious missteps in their handling of Bashar al-Assad and the problems in Syria.

If he stays in power, thats obviously bad because it empowersIranand so forth, but if he falls, its also possible it could trigger a second civil war, the Florida senator told CNN about Assad on Tuesday. So we are really in a bind here, and again, directly the result of the presidents mishandling of this entire situation.

To use a football analogy, if youre down 9 points with five seconds to go in the game, theres not anything you can do to win the game, because theres no such thing as a 9-point play in football, he continued. I hate to keep going back to the same point, but we may have reached a point now where there is no good outcome possible in this conflict, and again, it is the direct result of the mismanagement of this administration.

Comments are now closed.