Chris Murphy Quotes

Obama has refused to equip, or to arm, any rebel groups fighting Assad or his forces.

I just don't understand how Kerry or Obama or anybody else thought Assad was going to change.

If Assad continues to conduct strikes against the Free Syrian Army at will, it would be very difficult for them to have any success against ISIS.

In 2012, General Dempsey, General Petraeus directed the CIA, Secretary Panetta and Secretary Clinton recommended to the president to robustly arm and train the Syrian moderates. He says no. In 2013, conduct a military strike, same national security team, against the Assad regime because he violated the chemical red line. He says no.

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.

Assad's regime helped ISIS grow by attacking other opposition forces and rarely targeting ISIS.

The Syrian Intervention was aimed not only at strengthening Assad's position but at forcing the United States to deal with Moscow on a more even footing.

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.

Assad has to go. I mean, the way that ISIS can recruit, and the rebels that are in the north, and all the chaos that's happening through a lot of Syria circles around a lot of people that do not like Assad.

If the Obama regime gave a hoot about 'humanitarian crisis,' the Obama regime would not have orchestrated humanitarian crisis in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Yemen.

Da'esh and Assad are not separate problems.

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

The fall of the Syrian regime is in the interest of America and Israel.

When you look at Syria, and you look at all the militant groups on the ground, there are many groups in Syria that could pose a threat to the United States, not just Khorasan.

President Bashar Assad's regime is in the unique position of being targeted both by Israel and supporters of al Qaeda.

Many governments are quick to condemn Assad, but a dwindling number of them would celebrate a rebel victory in Damascus.

The United States wanted to send its trained rebel groups to Syria to fight ISIS. Out of twenty-five hundred rebels they had trained, only seventy accepted to go to Syria to fight ISIS. Everybody else wanted to go to Syria to fight the government. So you've got to wake up and smell the coffee... The rebel groups have not fired a shot against ISIS.

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

It's - getting Assad out is not the only priority. And so what we're trying to do is obviously defeat ISIS.

The regime of Bashar al-Assad will inevitably go down. And its collapse will be loud not only in Syria but across the Arab world.

There is no question that what we are seeing - the horrible advance of ISIS - goes back, if you will, to the original sin of the invasion of Iraq.

Iran has basically propped up Assad, who has waged an absolute war of horror against the Syrian people. And he has done anything he could to stay in power with the full support of the Iranians and including Iranian troops and Hezbollah from Lebanon, which are an Iranian proxy.

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

A lot of the issue that is happening in Syria is Assad is still there. And after years now, the administration, of saying Assad has to go, the pressure is not being applied to Russia, to Iran - the folks that are propping up Assad - and Assad himself to be able to actually be removed there and to transition to another leader.

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