In an appearance on Fox News Monday evening, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he would impose a unilateral U.S. no-fly zone over Syria in an effort to force regime change there.
Perry’s statement came in response to questions from columnist Charles Krauthammer, who asked whether Perry would support armed resistance in Syria. Perry said he believes “Iran is the real issue in the Middle East” and that the United States threw away a great opportunity to support regime change in Iran in 2009. “Naively, this administration was talking to Syria and the Iranians, and we wasted a great opportunity,” Perry said. Now, Perry vowed to “put everything on the table to encourage the fall of the Syrian regime.
Then Krauthammer asked: “Would you do what we did in Libya, which is to institute a no-fly zone over Syria? If you were president today, would you advocate that we do that in Syria?”
“Absolutely,” Perry said. “Absolutely.”
At that point, Fox panelist William Kristol asked Perry if he would impose a no-fly zone unilaterally, without waiting for the United Nations to approve. “I would not spend a lot of time waiting for the U.N.,” Perry answered.
Perry is the first Republican presidential candidate to promise a no-fly zone over Syria. Several GOP candidates, although not Perry, have been critical of the Obama administration’s action in Libya, in which a U.S- and NATO-imposed no-fly zone was quickly followed by air attacks on pro-Gaddhafi forces on the ground. In his Fox appearance, Perry did not offer any details on how he believed a Syrian no-fly zone would work.
