Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who advocated action in Syria after the beheading of his constituent Steve Sotloff, said the fight will ultimately be up to Arab nations for the “soul of Islam.”
Nelson told MSNBC this morning that the growth of al-Qaeda satellite Khorasan is “just another indication of how much of a threat is out there.”
“At the end of the day, we can provide all these airstrikes, which I support… at the end of the day, this is going to have to be the Arab world and the Muslim world that are gonna have to do this fight on the ground,” the senator said.
“They’re gonna have to decide to protect the soul of Islam and the Arab culture. Otherwise, it’s gonna be taken over by this very radical group, whether it’s those that are trying to do harm to us as the Khorasan Group and ISIS or ISIS that is obviously perpetrating all of this violence against their own people.”
Nelson said President Obama is “doing exactly what he should” in regards to “building a coalition.”
“He’s had intelligence flights over Syria since August 25th… He’s turned it over to his experts, his commanders, to execute the strikes. The president’s doing exactly what he should.”
But he joined the voices of other lawmakers who have opined that Congress shouldn’t be in recess when a new AUMF may be needed.
“Now, with regard to Congress, we ought to be back in session,” Nelson said. “We ought to be debating war and peace right now and ultimately voting to give the authorization for the use of military force.”
“What I believe, however, is the president, as commander in chief, under the Constitution has the authority to go ahead and strike in Syria, as he already has.”
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