President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the United States should not rush into further involvement into the bloody Syrian conflict, but should rather thoroughly investigate initial intelligence assessments that concluded chemical weapons were likely used by the Assad regime.
“And what we now have is evidence that chemical weapons have been used inside of Syria, but we don’t know how they were used, when they were used — who used them,” Obama told reporters at a press conference in Washington. “We don’t have a chain of custody that establishes what exactly happened. And when I am making decisions about America’s national security and the potential for taking additional action, in response to chemical weapon use, I’ve got to make sure I’ve got the facts.”
He added: “That’s what the American people would expect. And if we end up rushing to judgment without hard effective, evidence, then we can find ourselves in a position where we can’t mobilize the international community to support what we do. There may be objections even among some people in the region who are sympathetic with the opposition if we take action.”
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced last week that U.S. intelligence had concluded with “some degree of varying confidence” that Assad had likely used chemical weapons against the rebels on a “small scale.” That disclosure led to several Republican senators, including John McCain (AZ) and Lindsey Graham (SC), to declare that a “red line” was crossed, requiring further action from the United States.
