WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz said on conservative Glenn Beck’s radio show that if the United States strikes Syria it will be acting as “al Qaeda’s air force.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (Mike Fuentes/Bloomberg)
That prompted a stern rebuke from an Illinois lawmaker – a fellow Republican – at this afternoon’s House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Syria.
“I have heard people say, and it has really bothered me — they say that if we go in and we strike Assad, and make him pay for the use of chemical weapons… that we are acting as, quote, `Al Qaeda’s Air Force,’ ” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger. “That is a cheap line by some people to garner headlines and not a serious discussion about what is going on in Syria.”
Kinzinger — an Air Force pilot and major in the Air National Guard — asked Secretary of State John Kerry what he thought of the Texas senator’s colorful characterization, though neither cited Cruz by name.
Kerry responded by taking issue with the suggestion that a strike would aid any terror group. “It won’t help al Qaeda. It will further expose al Qaeda. But it will hold a dictator accountable to this critical standard,” he said.
Failing to act, he said, would allow Assad to act with impunity, and “completely undermine America’s credibility, America’s word in the region and elsewhere. It will embolden North Korea and embolden Iran.”