War with Isis: President Obama demands Turkey close stretch of border with Syria

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31. Ousting Assad is Counterproductive and Illegal, Says Congresswoman

Larry Wilkerson discusses a bill introduced by US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard that seeks to redress the failed Syria strategy - December 1, 2015

As the civil war continues in Syria, solutions to end the conflict and the human suffering caused by it are preoccupying many of us. In that regard, Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii Tulsi Gabbard recently introduced a bill aimed at prohibiting arms and funding from being sent to groups seeking to overthrow Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. The bill prohibits the use of U.S. funds for the provision of assistance to Syrian opposition groups and individuals. Here is Congresswoman Tulsi in an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN, critiquing U.S. foreign policy in Syria.

WOLF BLITZER: Why do you say the U.S. effort to get rid of Bashar al-Assad's regime is counterproductive and illegal?

TULSI GABBARD (D-HI): Well, first of all, there's not been a vote in Congress to authorize the use of force, to authorize a war to overthrow a sovereign government. For as long as I've been there that hasn't happened. It didn't happen before I got there. So the American people haven't had a choice to speak their voice to approve or disapprove such a war. Therefore it's illegal. Secondly, it is counterproductive because right now U.S. arms are getting into the hands of our enemy. Al-Qaeda, Al-Nusra, these other groups, Islamic extremist groups who are our sworn enemy. These are groups who attacked us on 9/11 and who supposedly we're trying to defeat. Yet at the same time, supporting them with these arms to overthrow the Syrian government.

PERIES: Here to discuss the congresswoman's position is Col. Lawrence Wilkerson. He's the former chief of staff for the U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, and currently and adjunct professor of government at the college of William and Mary. He's also a regular contributor to the Real News Network. Larry, thank you so much for joining us today.

LARRY WILKERSON: Thanks for having me, Sharmini.

PERIES: So Larry, this must take you back to the debate over the legality of the Iraq war. Is what the Congresswoman Tulsi arguing here, what the U.S. is doing in Syria, is it illegal?

WILKERSON: I think so. And I'm glad to hear this debate taking place, especially in a far more, in my view, formidable way than it did previously.

I happen to know, backtrack just for a moment, I happen to know the congresswoman fairly well from my almost hour-long conversation with her in her office about the Iran-EU-Germany Permanent 5 Iran deal, the JCPOA, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. I found the congresswoman to be deliberate, well-versed in what we were talking about, in some ways more circumspect even than the party there to discuss it with her. And I found her to be very serious and very concentrated on her responsibility towards dealing with that agreement in the way she felt was best for the American people and ultimately for the world.

So I have great respect for her ability, not just because she's an Iraq war veteran, but also because I found in her what I did not find in clearly a majority of the rest of the Congress, of either Republican or Democratic ilk. And that is, I found a sane and sober voice. I found a voice interested in national security in a serious way, and a voice that was well-informed and itself spoke well about national security issues.

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