Retired Lt. Col. Ralph Peters told Fox Business Network’s Trish Regan on Tuesday that President Obama "doesn’t have the guts" to enter into a military confrontation with Russia.
While describing the flaws in both of the presidential candidate’s proposed Syria policies, Peters slammed Obama for his inaction in the Syrian civil war during his presidency.
"President Obama has let this go on so long. He’s been so apathetic, so lethargic that it’s gotten to the point where Russia dominates the skies, and [Vladimir] Putin has warned us explicitly that any attempt on our part to ground, to militarily ground Syria’s air force will lead to a military confrontation with Russia," he said. "And you know President Obama doesn’t have the guts for that."
This did not stop Peters from laying into Donald Trump as well.
"Mr. Trump is utterly wrong that [Bashar al] Assad and ISIS and–rather, that Assad and Putin are fighting ISIS," he said. "They’re fighting the moderate rebels that we equipped and letting us pay the bill to fight ISIS."
Peters said that Clinton’s no-fly zone proposal could have been effective years ago.
While elaborating on Clinton’s policy proposal, Peters ripped into Obama again.
"Now, Hillary Clinton talks about a no-fly zone, and it’d be great if we could do it at no cost, but are we really going to confront Russia militarily in the skies?" Peters asked. "Are our aircraft going to be dogfighting Russia? I’m not saying we shouldn’t or we should, I’m trying to lay out the problems here because Obama has let it go on so very, very wrong."
He took a final hit at Trump and Clinton after laying into Obama.
"So, Trump is wrong utterly about the situation," he concluded. "I think Hillary Clinton is four years too late in the solution."