Rep. Adam Kinzinger said President Trump should approve airstrikes against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and create a no-fly zone over the war-torn nation to provide cover for ground troops from Middle Eastern countries.
Mr. Kinzinger, Illinois Republican and a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, said the White House does not need to deploy ground forces, but he should send a message that it is not OK to deploy chemical weapons by launching “punishing strikes against the regime.”
“There are not a lot of great options in Syria, and I think everyday that goes by those options become less,” he said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
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Mr. Trump is coming under growing pressure to take action against Mr. Assad following a chemical attack against rebel forces.
Mr. Kinzinger said he is concerned that Syria is becoming a recruiting ground for the Islamic State terror group, also known as ISIS.
“If you are a 10-year-old kid, your dad was killed by somebody and you see ISIS as the only kind of opponent to Bashar al-Assad, who brutalized your family and you don’t have an education and you don’t have an opportunity, you are going to be recruited,” Mr. Kinzinger said.
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“So I’d like to see long-term humanitarian safe zones, a no-fly zone enforced by the United States and its allies, and then ultimately there will need to be a ground force, but it does not need to be American troops because I think the Middle East partners, and they have said it, are willing to do it,” he said.
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