Mark Udall, who serves on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the U.S. Armed Services Committee, welcomed Secretary of State John Kerry's call today for accountability following Syria's use of chemical weapons on its own people.
"As a member of the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, I welcome Secretary Kerry and the administration's condemnation of the Syrian regime for the indiscriminate killing of its own people. Secretary Kerry reminded us that the president's 'red line' is about more than the Syrian conflict -- it is about the regime's use of weapons that nearly all of the world's countries have recognized should be banned entirely," Udall said. "This line cannot be crossed without consequence.
"Secretary Kerry was clear that it is now a question of how, not whether, the United States will respond, but Congress still needs to hear from the president directly. More importantly, the president needs to explain his plan to the American people, who are understandably reluctant to support further military engagement in the Middle East. I have real concerns that any surgical strike could lead us into deeper involvement in a complicated civil war, but last week's attacks -- and the Syrian regime's years-long war against its people -- demonstrate that staying on the sidelines may carry risks just as grave."