Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Mich.) told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Thursday the U.S. was a "year and a half too late" in Syria and the "longer it went, the more confusing the battlefield became."
Mitchell led into the interview with a report on angry Syrian refugees giving Secretary of State John Kerry "an earful" about the failure of the U.S. to deliver weapons to the rebels and help halt the bloodshed of the 2-year-old civil war. The refugees, residents of the sprawling Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan, pleaded for the U.S. to use its air power to create a safe zone, the Los Angeles Times reported:
MITCHELL: Mr. Chairman, you know, you and I have had many conversations on this subject and other subjects and always in a completely respectful and collegial way. But while we sit here, what the refugees are saying to John Kerry is they're dying and Assad is winning and they are losing the war, and who's to blame for that while we are safe in our battle stations in Washington, D.C.
ROGERS: You remember those conversations, Andrea. There are those of us, me included, who said we are a year and a half too late. We've been pushing and trying to nudge the administration to make a decision earlier. What happened was the longer it went, the more confusing the battlefield became. You can't come in after the fire of the house is going and say, 'Why didn't somebody put it out?' The problem is you have to deal with the fire as you find it. So remember, this is important to get this right as to do anything at all. No one today in Congress is standing in the way of the administration doing what they have expressed an interest in doing. That isn't happening. However, there were passionate discussions about how you do that. If your intended goal is to change and have a positive influence in Syria, is what presented gets you to that goal? There were many in Congress in both parties, in both chambers who said no, and if you're going to put the good name of the United States at risk, you'd better do it right. Again, I was arguing for something earlier to prevent what we now know as a rising al-Qaeda membership, some 6,000 in the country. Iran is using this as a proxy war now. That wasn't happening a year-and-a-half ago because there was no action. That has Hezbollah actively engaging in combat operations, which we believed turned the tide for Assad. So it's not as simple as well, now we've decided and why don't we just do what we want to do. I wish it were that easy. This is a hard, complicated problem, and there's no good solution, but we'd better get it right if we're going to risk the good name of the United States.
Full interview: