Rubio: Syria Becoming 'Premier Operational Space for Global Jihadists'

Rubio: Syria Becoming 'Premier Operational Space for Global Jihadists'

On Tuesday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, compared Syria to Afghanistan, hours after President Barack Obama said Syria was not like Iraq or Afghanistan. Rubio argued that what happens in Syria is in America’s “vital national interest.”

Rubio said the instability in Syria is making the nation “kind of what Afghanistan was before 9/11–the premier operational space for global jihadists from abroad to come train and fight and plan attacks in the future…”

Earlier in the day, President Obama, just before a meeting where he was flanked by House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), offered a completely different opinion. “This is not Iraq, and this is not Afghanistan,” he told reporters.

Rubio emphasized that what happens in Syria “matters” to the United States and claimed if America were to ignore Syria, the problems there would not ignore America. 

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