A former Obama administration National Security Council staffer slammed the former president's policies toward Syria and praised President Donald Trump's recent missile strikes on a Syrian government airfield.
Barry Pavel, senior director for defense policy and strategy for the National Security Council from 2008 to 2010, told Fox News on Monday that former President Barack Obama's inaction in Syria left an unstable situation.
"I think he left a more dangerous world," Pavel said of Obama. "Potential adversaries know we had the capability, but not the will. Because they knew that the Obama administration would never use military force for any purpose, they felt free to conduct their coercive actions in the South China Seas, the Russians went into Iran and Syria and North Korea accelerated their nuclear arms program."
Pavel told Fox that he suggested cracking down on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad before the 2013 chemical weapons attack, but received significant pushback because Obama did not want to commit a massive numbers of troops. Pavel explained there was a choice in between inaction and invasion.
Pavel praised Trump's April 4 missile strike on a Syrian airfield, saying, "I think the Trump administration is putting the world on notice. The U.S. can use military force to achieve particular goals without getting mired in a protracted conflict."
He was not the only Obama administration official to praise the missile strike. Gary Samore, Obama's White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction, celebrated the decision as well.
"I applaud Trump. It was the kind of strike that Obama was planning–a limited military attack against the airfields in order to deter Assad from carrying out additional chemical weapons attacks, but he decided not to use it. Obama made a huge mistake by saying he was going to go to Congress for authorization, it turned out he did not have the votes," he said.