The Obama administration has not made the case for U.S. intervention in Syria, former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld said today.
Rumsfeld explained that “there really hasn’t been any indication from the administration as to what our national interest is with respect to this particular situation.” (Yesterday, White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters it is “absolutely in the national-security interests of the United States and the international community” to respond to the use of chemical weapons in Syria.)
In an interview with Neil Cavuto that will air Wednesday night on Fox Business Network, the former Bush secretary of defense blasted the administration as “mindless” for tipping its hand and said he “[couldn’t] imagine what they’re thinking” by giving President Bashar Assad’s regime “crystal clarity, with respect to what they attempt.”
Rumsfeld declared that the Obama administration is in a “withdrawal mode, an apology mode,” leaving room for China and Russia to take the place of the United States. He warned that neither country shares American values and that the administration’s stance “gives China and Russia an opportunity to do things that are fundamentally, against what we, as a country, and the American people would prefer to have happen.” Russia and China have repeatedly opposed international intervention in the Syrian conflict.