08.09 Senior Russian Lawmaker, US Ambassador Discuss Syria
MOSCOW, September 8 (RIA Novosti) - A senior Russian lawmaker and the US ambassador to Russia have discussed a possible US operation in Syria on Twitter.
The discussion between Ambassador Michael McFaul and Alexei Pushkov, the head of the Russian State Duma international affairs committee, started Saturday when Pushkov commented on a tweet from Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the United Nations.
Power wrote Friday that the costs of not taking a targeted military action in Syria are far greater than the risks of the limited but necessary measures that the US president outlined. Pushkov replied that that was exactly the argument the Bush administration used in order to explain its aggression against Iraq in 2003.
McFaul joined the conversation and said Pushkovs analogy was false, as unlike 2003, no one doubts that the regime has weapons, they used them, and we will not invade.
Pushkov replied that his analogy was correct as [President] Bush was looking for a pretext to invade Iraq, [President] Obama is looking for a pretext to bring down [Syrian President] Assad.
