USA: Republicans Slam President Obama’s Syria Plan

US Republican presidential candidates have denounced President Barack Obama’s decision to deploy 50 Special Operations Forces (SOF) to Syria as “too little, too late.”

Appearing on the Sunday TV shows this week, they said the deployment will be interpreted as a sign of weakness by the United States’ enemies.

Ben Carson said Obama’s Syria plan ignores the role that Russian President Vladimir Putin is playing in the deadly conflict.

“My much, much, much bigger plan involves Putin and Iran also,” the retired neurosurgeon said.

“Those are the forces that are propping up the Assad regime, even though Putin came in there and said he was going to fight [ISIL], he’s really fighting the anti-Assad forces,” Carson added.

He said that the US should establish a no-fly zone to protect militants fighting against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

• On September 30, Russia began its military campaign against Daesh (ISIL) terrorists and militants fighting against the Syrian government. It has carried out scores of airstrikes, killing hundreds of terrorists.

Carly Fiorina said that “this is a reflection of the reality that when America does not act, when we do not lead, as we have not in the last three years under this president, our options become very constrained, and the situation becomes more dangerous.”

• Obama ordered the deployment of Special Operations troops to Syria on Friday to “assist” militants fighting against the government and the Daesh terrorist group.

Fiorina said she is happy that the president “did this, but we still do not have a strategy in Syria, we still do not have a strategy to deal with [ISIL].”

Senator Lindsey Graham said the dispatch of “50 American Special Forces into Syria in the eyes of ISIL shows that Obama is not all-in, it is a sign of weakness to ISIL.”

He went on to call US Secretary of State John Kerry “a completely delusional man” who held talks on the Syrian crisis with his Russian and Iranian counterparts on Friday in Vienna.

• On Saturday, Kerry said US troops deployed to Syria will only try to combat Daesh terrorists and will not become involved in the years-long deadly conflict.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011.

The crisis has claimed the lives of more than 250,000 people so far and displaced millions of others.

PressTV: Republicans slam Obama’s Syria plan