President Trump’s decision to launch missiles on Syria Thursday night drew a range of reactions on Capitol Hill. But Alaska’s all-Republican congressional delegation gave it three thumbs up.
Sen. Dan Sullivan said the strike diminished Syria’s chemical capability and sends the Syrian president a message: “If he uses chemical weapons again, against his own people, he should expect the same or even a more devastating attack,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and received a classified briefing Friday from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Congressman Don Young both issued statements supporting the strike.
Several critics of the missile attack, including Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., say it violates the Constitution because Trump did not seek authorization from Congress. But that’s not Sullivan’s view.
“I’ll let the lawyers quibble about what that strike last night, whether that was constitutionally a valid action,” he said. “I’m supportive of it and I think most members of Congress are supportive of it.”
Sullivan, who is a lawyer, then said “quibble” was the wrong word to use, and specified that he does not believe Trump’s use of force was unconstitutional.
He said the U.S. lost a lot of credibility in the Middle East when former President Barack Obama took no military action against Syria after its 2013 chemical weapons attack.
Several other senators said they don’t know if the U.S. has a long-term strategy for Syria. As recently as last week, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said President Bashar al-Assad’s future is up to the Syrian people. Then, this week, Tillerson said “steps are underway” for the international community to force Assad out.
Sullivan said he doesn’t know whether regime change is part of the Trump administration’s Syria strategy and he declined to say whether he thinks it should be.
“I think we have an opportunity to start re-establishing our leadership and re-establishing our credibility, but … we have to do it with our allies and we have to do it carefully,” Sullivan said. “We should not be out saying things that we intend to do, or have as goals, unless we are 100 percent committed to seeing them through.”
Congress is now on a two-week Easter recess. Sullivan said he’ll spend the first week of it in North Carolina, training with his Marine reserve unit.
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at lruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Liz here.
