it destabilizes the position and makes it riskier for israel. some have criticized me and said these israel pro israeli, american israeli groups say they have to attack syria. my point is that opinion in israel is more plural i didn t say pluralistic than that. not everybody has the same opinions. they are pluralistic like america is. a good healthy debate about an attack helping or hurt hing israel, i defend israel but attacking assad makes it more likely israel would be attacked and more likely israel would be drawn into a regional war. it s better not to get involved in the civil war. there are a lot of worst case scenarios we could go through, whether we act or don t act. if we don t act, and assad uses chemical weapons on his people
representative michelle bachmann is back from the middle east. syria is one of the main issues. you have been quoted as saying if we do a military strike limited, it will make matters worse. it is impossible to have a limited strike. there is no such animal. we can t completely calculate what the other side will do. it isn t just assad. it is also iran, russia. there is a lot of players involved. turkey may have a role to play. qatar may have a roll to play. if assad takes missiles and they hit turkey, at that point you re talking to a nato partner. this morning i was just speaking with the nato ambassador in brussels. we were meeting with general breedlove, head of nato, on the weekend. article 5 of our nato charter says if there is an attack on
qaeda, everybody thinks that s a bad idea, myself included. if we destabilize assad, is it more or less likely that al qaeda may come into contact and in possession of chemical weapons? is it more likely or less likely that israel will be attacked? is it more or less like hi that will will be more refugees in jordan, an attack on turkey, our ally? i think those scenarios are more likely if we destabilize assad. i m not sure it s a good thing. nor am icon vinced being an ally of al qaeda is a good thing. what happens in response to the letters you have written? have you had a response from senate colleagues and do you have a sense if the vote did happen, it s been put off, but do you have a sense whether it would pass the senate to have military strike or oh not a limited military strike? a week ago i would have said it was a fait accompli because i didn t think there would be much debate.
we went into libya. didn t have congressional approval. look what happened. i know there is objection to the president going to congress. i think it was the right thing to do, the constitutional thing. it s interesting though secretary kerry says it is not war. i consider it war. it is war. if i had missiles lobbed at me that s war. it s an act of war. if you take that action, you have to expect, as you saw bashar al assad say to charlie rose, there will be a reaction. are you prepared for the counter action to it? that s the decision matrix the administration should be going through and what the american people are looking for. when you look at libya and the fact that we went there, toppled gadhafi but now have radical islamists all over. we lost an ambassador, had an attack on an embassy and terrorists are being trained to fight in syria. we have a minute left. president vladimir putin stepping in and taking a remark
one nato ally then it is up to the united states and the other allies, we have to go and protect that ally. so if there is an attack on turkey, then we are in it. that s for a limited strike. no one s discussing it. are you suggesting a more aggressive strike, a more definitive uh strike, a regime change strike though someone does get right into the weeds over there in terms of this civil war, are you suggesting to do that or do nothing? no. it s a disaster on every level. the administration has made this is not partisan. they have made almost every wrong foreign policy move they could make. they have been consistent though in the world view. i will give them that. they have been consistent. any time in any nation they could choose the side of the muslim brotherhood, they have chosen the side of the muslim brotherhood, whether it is in tunisia, libya, egypt, now in syria. they are taking the side of what