Washington, DC
Citing lessons learned from the Vietnam War, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal said he believes the president should ask Congress for authorization to send U.S. troops to Syria.
Neal said the Vietnam War started with 10,000 advisers in Vietnam – and escalated to half a million troops. “Fifty eight thousands Americans were killed without a vote on military authorization,” Neal said.
Neal, a Democrat from Springfield, spoke at a New England Council breakfast in Boston on Friday. Although most of his speech addressed domestic economic issues, an audience member and a reporter asked Neal for his views on President Barack Obama’s recent decision to deploy 50 U.S. Special Operations troops as advisers in Syria.
Neal, as he has in the past, said he supports airstrikes, but opposes sending U.S. ground troops. But Neal also said he thinks Congress should vote on whether to authorize the use of military force. A group of lawmakers, both liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans, have been pushing for a congressional Authorization for the Use of Military Force, as a way to limit Obama’s ability to unilaterally expand the U.S. role in the conflict.
“There should be a vote. There should at least be a full throttle discussion,” Neal said.
Neal said dealing with ISIS, the brutal jihadi Islamist group that has a presence in Syria and Iraq, is a “very important matter.” “I think ISIS represents a real danger for the American way of life and the democracies of Western Europe,” Neal said.
Neal said he thinks Europe, the Arab League and NATO all need to take a position against ISIS. “The Western European democracies need to step up. The Arab League needs to step up on this,” Neal said.
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