Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said Friday that she is “skeptical” of the claim that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime is behind a deadly chemical attack earlier this week that killed dozens of Syrian civilians, including children.
During an interview with CNN, the lawmaker from Hawaii criticized President Trump’s “reckless” missile strike against the airbase where defense officials believe the chemical attack originated. She asked: “Why should we just blindly follow this escalation of counter productive regime and sending American taxpayers’ dollars on these failed-regime-change wars that we have seen too often in Iraq and Libya and now continuing in Syria?”
Rep. Gabbard says Syria strikes were "reckless" and "flew directly in the face" of the action the UN was working on https://t.co/hCSkbLLNsK— CNN (@CNN) April 7, 2017
She also pointed to the George W. Bush-era when claims of weapons of mass destruction harbored by former Iraqi dictator Hassan Hussein led to the 2003 War in Iraq.
Calling for a complete independent investigation into the “horrific chemical weapon attacks,” Gabbard said she will be “the first one” to denounce Assad and call him a war criminal should the evidence prove he is guilty.
In a statement put out before the U.S. strike, Gabbard warned of the consequences of a long-standing conflict with Syria, including “a possible nuclear war between the United States and Russia.”
“A successful prosecution of Assad (at the International Criminal Court) will require collection of evidence from the scene of the incident, and I support the United Nation’s efforts in this regard,” Gabbard said. “Without such evidence, a successful prosecution is impossible.”
Gabbard, a member of the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees, added that an escalation of U.S. involvement in Syria would mean “more dead civilians, more refugees, the strengthening of terrorists, and a possible nuclear war between the United States and Russia.”
She also said Assad should be “executed” if found guilty.
Gabbard met with Assad to discuss ending the Syrian civil war during a secret trip to Syria in January. In a follow-up interview with CNN, she said, “In order for any peace agreement, in order for any possibility of a viable peace agreement to occur there has to be a conversation with [Assad].”
