Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Several lawmakers filled the airways Sunday to debate the U.S. approach in Syria now that the White House has confirmed the use of chemical weapons against civilians and the administration’s pledge to provide arms to the country’s rebels.
“I don’t think it’s been well handled,” said Dick Cheney Sunday on Fox News Sunday. “As John [McCain] said the other day, well, there were 93,000 people killed not affected by chemical weapons. Where was the concern then? It’s not clear to me what the mission is here, or they understand the mission.”
Cheney went on to say that the president’s new effort might be, “a day late, and a dollar short.”
Arming rebel Syrian troops was a step in the right direction, and the administration should also consider taking out Syrian government airstrips as additional support, said Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, who is also chairman of the Senate Foreign Relation’s Committee, on CNN’s State of the Union.
The “president’s moving in the right direction, but the end game has to include avoiding any entanglement, any involvement in a ground war, the committing of any of the United State’s troop in the same way that we did in Iraq and Afghanistan has to be off the table,” said Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut on Weekends with Alex Witt Sunday.
The Obama administration has not yet detailed what type of weapons they will be supplying the rebels.
Tiffany Lopez