Tulsi Gabbard Quotes

Syria: It’s a messy civil war and we should not be involved in it.

There is little doubt that an unstable Syria will destabilize the whole Middle East.

The understanding of Syria's devastating civil war has been distorted by the immense danger and difficulty of covering it.

Failed states have become breeding grounds for conflict.

There are still plenty of fighting forces inside of Syria who want to see Assad go. We should have been helping them from the very beginning.

We don't see a peaceful Syria with Assad in there.

The fate of Syria hangs in the balance, but it is entirely possible that the fall of the Assad regime will result in anarchy and cause Syria to turn into a second Afghanistan, a base for anti-Israel terrorism.

Syria cannot continue this way—killing their people

Failed states are mainly a threat to their own inhabitants. We should help them anyway.

We have no vital national interest in Syria's civil war.

As brutal as Saddam Hussein was, it was a mistake to just eliminate him. The same is true for Moammar Gadhafi and for Libya, which is now a failed state.

To destroy the Islamic State, you have to fix Syria. You have to look at the reasons that created the Islamic State. This is a huge task.

Here's the problem the Free Syrian Army has. They really want to topple the regime in Damascus, and this is where most of the fight takes place, between Aleppo and Damascus for the Free Syrian Army.

Why is Assad more responsible for all the deaths in Syria than those fighting to overthrow and kill him?

It's difficult to see how Syria can have any long-term future with Assad there as president. Many people would never return to that country if that were the case.

I've been calling for the support of the Syrian rebels for years.

Both sides in Syria are bad. One side is a brutal dictator, and the other includes Islamists and terrorists who are dangerous already and who would be brutal in power if given the chance.

Like a nuclear disaster, the fallout from the meltdown of Syria threatens to be with us for decades, and the longer it is permitted to continue, the more severe the damage will be.

It was wrenching to read about the brutality of Assad every morning, to see images of family homes reduced to rubble. I felt we had to do something in Syria.

Back in the 1950s, America set out to intervene in Syria, liberate the people from a corrupt elite, and bring about a new democracy. They did this with the best of intentions, but it led to disaster. And out of that disaster, the Assad regime rose to power.

There are now two Syrias. One is run by men who fight for God, not democracy. The other is ruled by a secular but authoritarian regime accused of many crimes against its people. The choice between the two will not be decided at the polls.

The U.S. would still like to see Assad go at some point. That would be our desired outcome.

Assad is a bad guy, but you may very well end up with worse than Assad.

If Sudan starts to crumble, the shock waves will spread.

When you scan the globe's hot spots, every civil war and massacre, every act of terror and every clash between states has its unique local circumstances.