http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20130905/NEWS/309050008/Duncan-Wilson-oppose-Syria-strike-invoke-Benghazi
Duncan, Wilson oppose Syria strike, invoke Benghazi
Sep. 4, 2013
|
0
Comments
While confronting Secretary of State John Kerry at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Syria, Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., holds up a photo of Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods who died in Benghazi, Libya, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Woods was one of four Americans slain in an attack on a U.S. compound in Libya last year. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) / J. Scott Applewhite / AP
Rep. Jeff Duncan of Laurens tangled with Secretary of State John Kerry at a Wednesday hearing after suggesting the Obama administration is using Syria to distract from the Benghazi incident in which four Americans were killed, including the ambassador, one year ago next week.
Duncan provoked Kerry by holding up a picture of one of the Benghazi victims.
“The American people deserve answers before we move forward talking about military involvement in Syria,” Duncan said during the hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
President Barack Obama has asked Congress to approve a resolution authorizing military strikes against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in response to its apparent use of chemical weapons against other Syrians on Aug. 21.
Rep. Joe Wilson also invoked Benghazi during Wednesday’s four-hour hearing and asked if the administration is avoiding other controversial issues such as the 2010 health care reform law, the debt ceiling, sequestration and the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative organizations for special scrutiny.
Wilson also asked Kerry why Obama didn’t propose military action against Assad when the White House learned his regime had used chemical weapons in April. Kerry said that was a smaller-scale event that prompted the administration to provide some aid to opposition forces in Syria, but not military strikes.
“I think action should have been taken then,” Wilson said.
He said after the hearing he will oppose a resolution authorizing military force against Syria, partly because the administration did not respond forcefully enough after the April incident.
Duncan accused Kerry of abandoning what he characterized as Kerry’s personal policy of caution and restraint regarding the use of military force.
No comments:
Post a Comment