The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said a New York Times op-ed on Syria penned by Russian President Vladimir Putin made him want “to vomit” — echoing a sentiment being widely expressed Thursday on Capitol Hill.
In the op-ed, published Wednesday night, Putin again warned the United States not to launch military strikes on Syria. He maintained that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime was not responsible for the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack in which more than 1,400 people died, according to U.S. officials.
“I almost wanted to vomit,” Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Robert Menendez, (D-N.J.) told CNN.
“I worry when someone who came up through the KGB tells us what is in our national interests, and what is not. It really raises the question of how serious the Russian proposal is.”
Sen. John McCain, (R-Ariz.) also shared his reaction to the op-ed on Twitter Thursday.
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4 Responses
Putin is acting more like a statesman than flip-flop-Obama. That is for sure.
No. 1: The operative word in your comment is “acting.” Mr. Putin is a fake phony fraud (to steal a phrase), and I had the same reaction to Mr. Putin’s article as Senator Menendez. And please don’t confuse flip-flops with changes in proposals based on changes in facts and circumstances.
Number 2, I agree with your analysis about Putin. But Obama has been flip-flopping on the Syrian issue for three years now. With red lines on and off, unenforced, threatened enforcement, no enforcement, etc. Syria used chemical weapons in this conflict several times over the past two years, violating Obama’s so-called red line which he never followed up on. And Obama has flip-flopped over the past three years about arming the insurgents.
No. 3: My recollection of the chemical weapons issue in Syria is different than yours. My recollection is that this is the first time that US intelligence services have satisfactory evidence of the use – not merely the existence – of chemical weapons. As I recall, Pres. Obama did say, in Campaign 2012, that use of chemical weapons would be a “red line” which, if crossed, would call for a US response, but I do not recall any use before the recent events. I have not done the homework needed to support my recollections with authoritative sources.