President Donald Trump's limited air-strike in Syria is a positive move, but he shouldn't provoke a major confrontation with Russia over the war-torn Arab nation, former deputy undersecretary of defense Jed Babbin tells Newsmax TV.
"Any time we're bombing [Syria President] Bashar Assad it's a good day," Babbin, who served under President George W. Bush, said Friday to Bill Tucker on "America Talks Live."
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"President Trump doesn't have a lot of options, [but] I don't think he's going to want to and I don't think he should tangle with the Russians and the Iranians because, quite frankly Syria, ain't worth it.
"There are a lot of things where American lives should be risked and can be risked but Syria just flatly isn't one of them. It's not worth it."
Babbin, a senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research, added that there are limited options as far as U.S. involvement in Syria.
"There are a lot of things we can do in Syria and there's a lot of things we can't do. Russia and Iran basically control the battle space there," he said.
"If you want to establish a no-fly zone, for example, in areas in northern Syria, you're going to have to find them with the Russian air force. We can do that but I don't think that's a really wonderful idea.
"Suiting up and doing something else to the Syrians is probably fine but there's not a lot of space to do it. The Iranians are in the way, the Russians are in the way, ISIS [the Islamic State] is in the way."
As well, Babbin said, the U.S. has troops in Syria already.
"The president has to decide just what he wants to do and I don't think there's a lot of good options right now," he told Tucker.
Babbin is the author of "The BDS War Against Israel: The Orwellian Campaign to Destroy Israel Through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement," written with Herbert London and published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
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