“We do not want to make a very complex situation in Syria even worse,” “I oppose, at this point, a unilateral American no-fly zone in Syria which could get us more deeply involved in that horrible civil war and lead to a never-ending U.S. entanglement in that region.”
Sanders does not oppose U.S. involvement in Syria, however. “I support President Obama’s effort to combat the Islamic State in Syria,” he said, “while at the same time supporting those in Syria trying to overthrow the brutal dictatorship of Bashar Assad.”
In August, Sanders said he would not end U.S. drone strikes in countries such as Pakistan and Yemen, arguing such strikes must be deployed “selectively and effectively.”
Sanders has also called for U.S. ally Saudi Arabia to do more to fight Islamic extremists. “Saudi Arabia has the third-largest military budget in the entire world,” he noted during an interview on ABC. “They’re going to have to get in and take on ISIS,” he said, adding that the “the United States cannot always be the only country involved in these wars.”
Sanders labels the late Hugo Chavez a “dead communist dictator” Not to be expected from someone who supported the Sandinistas in the 1980s and accepted discounted heating oil from Chavez for low-income Vermont residents.
