The Obama administration may want to give Russian President Vladimir Putin a pass on his devastating airstrikes in Syria, Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, tells
Newsmax TV.
"What I'm afraid we're going to hear out of this administration and Secretary [of State John] Kerry is they're going to be offering Vladimir Putin another off-ramp," Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, said Thursday to J.D. Hayworth on "Newsmax Prime."
"Hopefully they'll wake up to the reality situation and realize that Vladimir Putin is not looking for off-ramps, he's looking for on-ramps, and he just found the latest on ramp in Syria which completely changes the situation on the ground there."
The strikes were carried out in rebel-controlled areas of Homs and Hama provinces of Syria, where a civil war has raged on for four years, as armed dissidents try to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
Russia claims it is attacking "terrorist" positions in Syria. But the strikes have reportedly killed dozens of civilians.
The U.S. has so far remained out of the fray, but some say that makes it complicit in the bombing of rebels it has been training to fight Assad.
"This is going to just reinforce Bashar al-Assad as he continues to slaughter Syrian citizens. We're up to about 250,000 Syrians, we got 7.6 million Syrians displaced within Syria, 4 million refugees," Johnson said.
"The flood of refugees into Europe is just the tip of the iceberg caused by this tragedy, caused by President Obama's tragic and miserable failure of a strategy…."
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