Florida Sen. Marco Rubio seemed to indicate in a recent interview that he would be willing to attack Russia if elected President.
Rubio believes we should create a “no fly zone” over Syria that includes punishing anyone who violates it-including Russia.
According to Breitbart:
“Rubio’s daring announcement came Oct. 5, during a friendly interview with CNBC’s John Harwood, who asked him how he would respond if Russian strongman Vladimir Putin despatched combat aircraft into a U.S.-declared “no-fly zone” in Syria.
Rubio: “If you are going to have a no-fly zone, it has to be against anyone who would dare intrude on it, and I am confident that the United States Air Force can enforce that, including against the Russians… I believe the Russians would not test that. I don’t think it is in the Russians’ interest to engage in an armed conflict of the United States.
Harwood: You think Putin would back off if we had a no-fly zone?
Rubio: I don’t think he’s going to go into a safe zone, absolutely. I don’t believe he will look for a direct military conflict against the United States in order to go into a safe zone.
Harwood: What if he was?
Rubio: Well, then you’re going to have a problem, but that would be no different than any other adversary.
Harwood: You’d be willing to accept that consequence?
Rubio: Because the alternative is this massive migration crisis that we’re now facing. The alternative is that [Syrian strongman Bashar] Assad will remain in power, but never control the whole whole of Syria again. the alternative is the continued growth of non-ISIS [jihadi] terrorist groups in addition to ISIS itself. So i think the alternative is worse.”
Rubio admitted that the U.S. public would be scared by such a dramatic war with Russia.
Harwood: Don’t you think the prospect of potential military – hot military conflict with Russia would scare the American people?
Rubio: Sure. But the consequences of not doing anything would scare them even more and that includes its ongoing crisis of the migratory crisis that we’re now facing. The continued growth, not just of ISIS, but a Jabhat al-Nusra and other groups in the region as well. At the end of the day… We cannot say, well, if Putin is going to test us, then we can’t do anything. You’ve basically at that point ceded to him as becoming the most influential geopolitical broker in the region.”
