On Tuesday, almost 60 people died in Syria after warplanes dropped bombs filled with chemicals. The number includes women and children. Many suspect President Bashar al-Assad’s regime for the attack.
President Donald Trump condemned the attack, but also ripped into former President Barack Obama for not sticking to his “red line” on Syria:
“Today’s chemical attack in Syria against innocent people including women and children is reprehensible and cannot be ignored by the civilized world,” Mr. Trump said in a statement.
“These heinous actions by the Bashar al-Assad regime are a consequence of the past administration’s weakness and irresolution,” he added. “President Obama said in 2012 that he would establish a ’red line’ against the use of chemical weapons and then did nothing.”
In August 2012, then-President Obama considered chemical attacks in Syria a “red line” for the regime:
“What I’m saying is we’re monitoring that situation very carefully,” Obama said in a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room.
But if the Assad regime were to use its weapons stockpiles, or alternatively, move it around, Obama suggested military action could be on the table.
“We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized,” the president said. “That would change my calculus. That would change my equation.”
Obama also told NBC News that the United States had “communicated in no uncertain terms with every player in the region that that’s a red line for us and that there would be enormous consequences if we start seeing movement on the chemical weapons front or the use of chemical weapons.”
Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made similar remarks:
“Both the minister [Turkey Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu] and I saw eye to eye on the many tasks that are ahead of us, and the kinds of contingencies that we have to plan for, including the one you mentioned in the horrible event that chemical weapons were used. And everyone has made it clear to the Syrian regime that is a red line for the world,” Clinton said at the time.
Former CIA Director Leon Panetta even admitted that Obama’s inaction after the Syrian regime crossed the red line hurt America’s reputation:
Here’s Trump: