Just back from a congressional oversight trip to the Middle East, South Asia and Europe, Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said this week he's "skeptical" of suggestions that the U.S. should intervene in Syria's growing internal conflict, saying, "There's no good option."
"There would be an enormous hazard to our country that we could Americanize what is a Syrian civil war," Welch said. "The humanitarian situation is dire. The potential for chaos and things getting worse is dire. But that doesn't mean there's an easy solution about what we should do. In my view, the president is being quite wise to be restrained. Have we not learned anything from Iraq and Afghanistan?"
Welch's week-long trip brought him and four U.S. senators to Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Germany. While in Turkey, the delegation visited the Kilis refugee camp near the country's border with Syria. The camp houses some 14,000 refugees from the Syrian conflict.
Welch's trip came just days before Israel conducted air strikes near the Syrian capital of Damascus and as President Obama faced escalating calls to intervene in the conflict.
But citing the practical challenges of lethal intervention, Welch said, "I have a lot of skepticism [about] the armchair general politicians here in D.C. that are acting as though it's a simple matter of a no-fly-zone or arming rebels."