Senator: ‘Darker days’ ahead in Syria

Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) called on the Obama administration to outline its strategy in Syria, saying Russia’s actions in the country indicate the situation is worsening.

“Make no mistake — these events portend darker days to come in Syria,” she said in a written statement Thursday. “Russia’s actions, as Secretary of Defense Ash Carter rightly put it, pour gasoline on the fire. The violence will only escalate, as will the flow of foreign terrorists into the country and refugees out of it.”

{mosads}Russian forces carried out their second day of airstrikes Thursday. Moscow has insisted its goal is to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). But U.S. officials said Thursday the airstrikes appear to hitting targets where ISIS is not believed to be.

In her statement, Fischer included the Russian airstrikes among a list of what she sees at the Obama administration’s failures in Syria. Those include the train and equip program that only has a few fighters in the battlefield and the flood of refugees fleeing Syria.

“All of these events were predictable,” Fischer said. “It’s greatly concerning that the administration is continuously caught off guard and publicly expresses confusion over obvious consequences and foreseeable occurrences.”

The Nebraska lawmaker, who previously wrote a letter to Carter asking for a review of the training program, now asked President Obama for details on his Syrian strategy.

“Is train and equip still our focus?” she said. “Must [Bashar] Assad still go? Time is not limitless. While the American people continue to wait for these answers, others are filling the leadership vacuum.”