Portman, Kasich back Syria strikes
WASHINGTON – Sen. Rob Portman and Ohio Gov. John Kasich backed President Donald Trump’s decision to attack chemical weapons facilities Friday in Syria, with Portman tweeting the West must hold Syria’s leader “accountable” for using “barbarous” chemical weapons against the Syrian people.
Portman and Kasich joined most Ohio Republicans on Capitol Hill in enthusiastically approving the cruise missile attacks launched by United States, France and Great Britain. By contrawhst, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, offered a more restrained response, saying it was “important that our allies in Britain and France were part of this process.”
Portman tweeted the cruise missile attacks were needed to “hold Syrian President Bashar Assad accountable for his barbarous chemical weapons attack against his own people.” He added “we must put Syria on notice, as well” as Assad’s supporters in Iran and Russia “that this will not be tolerated.”
Kasich tweeted that “Americans should welcome President Trump’s joint action with the United Kingdom and France in punishing the Syrian regime in order to uphold the global prohibition on chemical weapons use.”
Brown said the allied missile strikes “appear to be a targeted and proportional response to the Assad regime’s gruesome attacks on civilians.”
But Brown warned “we’ve learned from the past that a military strike without a diplomatic plan will leave us right back here again a year from now,” saying it was “critical” Trump construct an international effort to develop “clear objectives for ending the violence in Syria and holding Russia and Iran accountable for enabling the Assad regime.”
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dennis Kucinich, a former Democratic congressman from Cleveland, asserted Trump acted without “congressional authorization in ordering a military attack against Syria” in violation of the Constitution, “which makes it clear that only Congress has the power to declare war.”
As recently as last year, Kucinich met with Assad in Damascus. After returning to the United States, Kucinich said on Fox News that he was not ready to not acknowledge that ”Assad has used chemical weapons” against the Syrian people.