I try to give Republicans the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes I try to believe that maybe — just maybe — congressional Republicans will rise above the political fray to support our national interest. Millions of children and families are fleeing Bashar al-Assad’s oppressive regime and thousands of Syrians were gassed in their own streets. Yet despite these facts, despite the evidence that Assad’s government used chemical weapons against its own people, Republicans have chosen to play politics with a humanitarian crisis.
Republicans cannot oppose, with any credibility, a limited missile strike on Syria to deter further use of chemical weapons. In the early 2000s, President Bush and Republicans were salivating over intervention in Iraq — a war of choice based on questionable intelligence and motive. After 10 years, a complete invasion, thousands of casualties and nearly a trillion dollars in Iraq, there is no explanation as to why congressional Republicans are diametrically opposed to a limited missile strike against Syria. The hypocrisy would be funny if it weren’t so obscene.
Republican opposition to limited military intervention in Syria is purely politics. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, chief obstructionist to anything Obama, made this point crystal clear. On Sept. 10, Senator McConnell took his opposition to involvement with Syria to the Senate floor. Shortly after, McConnell’s desperate re-election campaign sent a fundraising pitch to supporters highlighting his opposition to military strikes against Syria.
McConnell’s campaign manager went so far as to say, “Mitch made it very clear to me from the beginning that he does not politicize issues of national security. He believes that America’s strength in the world should not be subject to the political theatre that so often takes hold of Washington these days.”
This is the same man who said his No. 1 priority as Senate minority leader was to make President Obama a one-term president. Good work, Mitch.
The Republican response to the tragedy in Syria has been politics at its worst. To me, the party leadership has demonstrated that they have no problem invading Muslim countries and forcing upon them an American democracy, but when it comes to stopping a tragic humanitarian crisis, the GOP is notably absent.
The United States has an obligation to act on Syria. As President Obama noted Tuesday evening, the U.S. Senate in 1997 overwhelmingly approved an international agreement prohibiting the use of chemical weapons, now joined by 189 governments that represent 98 percent of humanity. Assad violated that agreement when he gassed thousands of civilians — we’ve seen the videos, pictures and Twitter accounts from that night.
The president stated, “In the days leading up to August 21, we know that Assad’s chemical weapons personnel prepared for an attack near an area they where they mix sarin gas. They distributed gas masks to their troops. Then they fired rockets from a regime-controlled area into 11 neighborhoods that the regime has been trying to wipe clear of opposition forces.
“Shortly after those rockets landed, the gas spread, and hospitals filled with the dying and the wounded. We know senior figures in Assad’s military machine reviewed the results of the attack. And the regime increased their shelling of the same neighborhoods in the days that followed. We’ve also studied samples of blood and hair from people at the site that tested positive for sarin.”
The failure to act against Syria would not only give Assad the green light to continue gassing his opposition, but it would also weaken the international prohibition on chemical weapon use and our troops may once again have to face chemical weapons on the battlefield. This is not a world the United States can or should accept. If it is within our power to stop the crisis in Syria, we should act.
I do not contend that we can bring peace to Syria’s civil war, but we do have the responsibility to stop Assad from using chemical weapons, the responsibility to stop his regime from setting a dangerous international precedent. Republicans need to stop playing politics with this crisis. Unlike Iraq, we have the facts — boots will not be on the ground in Syria. Of course, we should exhaust all diplomatic options before any military strike against Syria. But if the commander in chief decides on a limited military strike, I hope Washington will rise above politics to support the victims of Assad’s oppressive regime.
Sean Higgins is a political science and sociology double major from Brookings, S.D.
