Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut on the Foreign Relations Committee is asking President Obama to use restraint as he weighs a response to the suspected use of chemical weapons by regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
“If you don’t take out Assad with that strike, the repercussions could come to U.S. interests and U.S. allies, but they could also come in further strikes against the Syrian people,” Murphy said on Jansing & Co. Thursday. “I think it’s difficult, though, for this to be limited in time and duration. I think that there is going to be a retaliatory action by Assad and I think it’s going to prompt us and our allies to respond in kind.”
Murphy wants President Obama to come to Congress for authorization of any military strike, though he doesn’t dispute that chemical weapons were used.
“I saw those videos, I saw those pictures. I think of my two little kids at home when I watch the little children who were killed silently by chemical weapons, and I’m outraged,” Murphy said. “But I want to make sure the action that we take actually makes the Syrian people safer. And if you drop a bunch of bombs on Syria today and don’t remove Assad from power, you potentially make the situation worse for the Syrian people. And you potentially drag us into a conflict that could last a decade.”
Watch the full interview with Senator Chris Murphy here:
