Former President Barack Obama's first national security adviser, Jim Jones Jr., on Sunday lambasted the Obama administration's decision not to punish the Syrian regime for using chemical weapons against its own people, suggesting that doing so could have subsided the refugee crisis.
"That was a colossal mistake from a strategic standpoint," Jones, a retired Marine Corps general, said on CNN's "State of the Union."
President Obama said in 2012 that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's use of chemical weapons in the Syria conflict would cross a "red line" for him, adding that he would hold the regime "accountable" while implying the use of military force.
The following year, the White House said the Assad regime used chemical weapons on Syrian civilians, but Obama chose not to act or punish the government for its actions.
Jones said on Sunday that Obama should have penalized Assad by forcing him to "forfeit" territory "where refugees could have been handled."
He added that punishing Assad could have prevented refugees from entering Europe and triggering the ongoing humanitarian crisis.