By Jim McNally
U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger believes he has a plan to relieve the United States from any kind of moral obligation regarding the nation’s possible military intervention in the Syrian civil war.
Pittenger, a freshman Republican congressman whose 9th District includes a good portion of Iredell County, wants to teach and prepare Syrians who have been forced into exile by the unrest to fight their own war.
“There are 2 million refugees from Syria in various countries,” Pittenger said in an interview with the R&L. “Tens and even hundreds of thousands of them are men who are capable of being trained. And they already have the motivation and the passion to get in there and take their country back.”
Under Pittenger’s plan, the U.S. would at most play a very limited role in the matter.
“This is achievable by the world community,” he said. “This need not be an American operation at all.”
Pittenger, who recently returned from his second trip to the Middle East in less than a month, said he had a meeting Monday with both Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, during which he explained his plan and said they appeared receptive.
“I saw them taking notes,” Pittenger said and added that he will soon have audience with Vice President Joe Biden to brief him on the idea.
Pittenger’s fear regarding heavy-handed U.S. military involvement is not one of failure but rather one of success.
“If we start sending in missiles and striking Syria, eventually it will cause the fall of (Syrian President Bashar) Assad,” Pittenger said. “Assad is evil. Assad is despotic and he will have to be dealt with. But if the regime falls and there is a power vacuum, there will be WMD that could easily get into the hands of terrorists who do harm to America. And these weapons are portable. Can you imagine them pulling into the Wilmington or Charleston ports?”
Pittenger said, in any case, President Obama does not have the support of Congress he said he would attain prior to taking any action in Syria.
“The President has the lost the vote in Congress,” Pittenger said. “He has counted the votes and he knows he doesn’t have them. And the American people are not behind this either.”
Indeed, in an unofficial poll released Monday by USA Today, only 22 members from chamber of Congress were willing to pledge support of Obama’s plan.
Pittenger also said Obama was outplayed in this world political match by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said he would broker a plan through the United Nations that would place Assad’s most odious weapons under international scrutiny and monitoring.
“Putin is a master strategist,” Pittenger said. “He waited until he knew Obama didn’t have the support for his plan and then he came rushing in to save the day. It made us look weak and Russia look strong. It was a case of Putin playing chess while Obama was playing checkers.”
Pittenger said he would not support the use of force in Syria should the matter ever be to a vote.
That is the same position Iredell’s other member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, is taking on the matter.
“At this time, I do not believe the use of military force in Syria, as sought by the President, is the appropriate response to Syria’s use of chemical weapons; nor is it the best defense of America’s national security interests,” Foxx said in statement. “Thus, after carefully considering President Obama’s request and reviewing classified information provided by the White House, I will not support the current proposal to authorize military force in Syria.”
Foxx, a Republican from the 5th District, said her constituents “overwhelmingly agree with my opposition to committing American troops and assets to an ill-conceived, ‘shot across the bow’ campaign in the midst of Syrian tumult.”
Foxx said Obama has not made his case for Syrian intervention. In fact, she said, the President’s intentions have been ambiguous.
“The Administration’s objective for engagement remain unclear and leave the American public doubting whether authorizing force would deter the use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons by unstable regimes.”
Like Pittenger, Foxx believes Assad should be held accountable for whatever war crimes or crimes against humanity he may have committed.
“But until we can conclude that the application of American military power is the best way to protect the American people, our allies or our interests,” she said, “it does not serve our country to risk American lives and waste American resources in Syria.”
Note: This story went to press prior to President Obama’s Tuesday night speech on the Syrian situation.
