Santorum Responds To Obama Citing

"The Syria Accountability Act"

Verona, PA - Former presidential candidate, former U.S. Senator, and Chairman of Patriot Voices Rick Santorum issued the following statement in response to President Obama's citing of the "Syria Accountability Act" as rationale to intervene militarily in the Syrian Civil War.

Rick Santorum said: "I hope that the President has only been incorrectly counseled, and that he is not consciously misleading the press and the American people with his rationale urging American military intervention in Syria.  The Syria Accountability Act, a law I coauthored a decade ago, was never intended as a tripwire for military intervention.  This law was intended to ratchet up pressure on the Syrian regime that was interfering in the sovereignty of the government of Lebanon, pursuing WMD capabilities, and sponsoring terrorist activities.  The penalties recommended by this bipartisan law were economic and diplomatic in nature, not the military strikes President Obama is now proposing.

"Had President Obama and then-Secretary of State Clinton done their job over the past two years, we would not be in this position today.  When this conflict began, I believed that American influence could have been used to successfully remove Assad and steer the Syrian opposition in the right direction, but circumstances have changed.  President Obama and then-Secretary Clinton dithered and a military strike is no longer in our national security interest," concluded Santorum.

Senator Santorum served for 8 years on the Senate Armed Services Committee and was the author of several major pieces of legislation focused on the Middle East, among those include the Syria Accountability Act.