U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke on the Senate floor, today, to voice his concern about Obama’s plan to supply arms to Syrian rebels. The senator criticized the Regime’s failure to engage at the beginning of the uprising when peaceful protesters could have used the vocal, energetic support of the United States, and we could have made a positive difference.. Cruz argues that the U.S. has since lost its opportunity to have influence over the situation in a manner that would serve our nation’s best interests.
He also said it is deeply disturbing that the president “has chosen not to communicate his decision directly to congress or the American people. And I would note, communicating not through a junior staffer, not through a spokesperson but himself directly to the American people. According to a Pew poll taken over the weekend, 70% of Americans oppose arming the Syrian rebels. Quite sensibly. In a case where his policy is so at odds with the American people it’s beholden on the president to make his case and persuade us that this proposed intervention is necessary.”
Although the situation in Syria is very serious – 93,000 are dead, millions have been displaced and Assad has used chemical weapons on his own people –the most effective, organized rebels are loyal to al Qaida. The U.S. should not provide arms to groups that are loyal to our enemies. Our enemy’s enemy is not necessarily our friend.
“The President would be better off focusing clearly on the one thing that is in our national security interests: securing Syria’s large stockpile of chemical weapons,” Sen. Cruz said. “We know Assad has used these weapons, and there is good reason to suspect the al Qaida-affiliated rebels would use them as well if they could get their hands on them. This poses an intolerable threat not only to our friends in the region, but also to the United States. We need to be developing a clear, practical plan to go in, locate the weapons, secure or destroy them, and then get out. The United States should be firmly in the lead to make sure the job is done right.”
According to a recent Pew poll taken over the weekend 70 percent of Americans oppose arming the rebels.
Yesterday in the President’s long speech on national security at the Brandenburg Gate he did not mention his planned intervention in Syria. He told us that he is a “citizen of the world,” but he is also President of the United States, and he owes the American people an explanation. President Obama needs to explain:
- Why aiding the Syrian rebels is now worth our intervention when it wasn’t two years ago.
- How he has established which rebels are the appropriate recipients of this support and how this very limited support will make a material difference in Syria.
- How his team is proactively planning to keep Syria’s chemical weapons out of the hands of either Hezbollah or al Qaida.
The senator added, “With this track record of incoherent and indecisive action resulting in setback after setback to the United States, we are supposed to just trust President Obama to do a better job managing the situation in Syria?”
The senator concluded with two simple observations: “Number one, don’t arm al Qaida. Don’t arm those who hate us. Don’t arm those who want to kill us. Number two, when it comes to matters of vital national security, the President of the United States needs to come to the American people. It is not acceptable for the president to simply send out staffers to pass on his decisions. He needs to come before Congress and the American people and explain those decisions.”
Here are a couple of posts that sort of punctuate Cruz’s point about the the insanity of arming terrorists:
Bryan Preston, PJ Media: Syrian Rebels Behead Christian, Feed Him to Dogs:
Syrian rebels beheaded a Christian man and fed his body to dogs, according to a nun who says the West is ignoring atrocities committed by Islamic extremists.
The nun said taxi driver Andrei Arbashe, 38, was kidnapped after his brother was heard complaining that fighters against the ruling regime behaved like bandits.
She said his headless corpse was found by the side of the road, surrounded by hungry dogs. He had recently married and was soon to be a father.
Sister Agnes-Mariam de la Croix said: ‘His only crime was his brother criticised the rebels, accused them of acting like bandits, which is what they are.’
Glenn Beck: Who is Obama arming in Syria? Shocking video shows they are not good guys:
On radio today, Glenn mentioned the shocking video that hit the internet which appears to show Syrian rebel army leader Abu Sakkar cutting the heart out of a dead Syrian soldier and eating it. These are the radical rebels Obama is arming — so what does that mean for the new Syria when Assad is ousted?
