Why Rick Santorum changed his mind on Syria

By Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum

In light of yesterday’s approval by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee authorizing U.S. military force in Syria, I wanted you to know that I strongly oppose such action.

Here’s why.

When these atrocities in Syria came to light last year, I advocated for military intervention to take out the Assad regime, a strong supporter of Iran.  Had President Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acted then in support of pro-democracy forces, we could have removed Assad and helped usher in stability for that country.

But we have a very different situation today.  After nearly two years, 100,000 people killed, a rebel force comprised of al Qaeda and a Syrian regime in a much a stronger position, a military strike would no longer be in our national security interest.

President Obama put 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.  If he firmly believed in his own policy, he would have already acted in Syria.

There are no good outcomes here.  An al Qaeda-run Syria is no better than an Assad-Iran-Hezbollah-run Syria.  What is happening there is tragic, but it is not in the United States’ best interest to intervene with a military strike.