Graham: Barrel bombs should be the new 'red line' in Syria

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Tuesday that the U.S. should threaten to intervene militarily in the Syrian civil war if Bashar Assad’s regime uses barrel bombs to attack civilians.

Graham acknowledged in a CNN interview that such a threat would amount to a significant escalation in policy. President Donald Trump said last week that Assad’s recent use of chemical weapons crossed lines and prompted U.S. missile strikes in Syria, but he did not mention barrel bombs, which are used much more frequently.


The brutal chemical weapons attack that has been widely attributed to Assad’s regime crossed a “red line” Barack Obama established, but did not ultimately act on, as president.

Still, Graham maintained that making barrel bombs the new “red line” is “long overdue.”

“Here’s what I would tell President Trump,” said Graham, a Republican and a hawk on foreign policy. “You did a great thing by enforcing the chemical weapons violation. But it's not about how you killed the babies, it's the fact that you're slaughtering innocent people through air power.”

On Monday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer seemed to suggest that the Trump administration would view the use of barrel bombs in Syria as an act that would prompt U.S. retaliation. “The sight of people being gassed and blown away by barrel bombs ensures that if we see this kind of action again, we hold open the possibility of future action,” he told reporters at the daily White House briefing.

After his comments were interpreted by some observers as a major change in policy, however, Spicer moved to walk them back, insisting that “nothing has changed in our posture.”

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Graham, though, said the Trump administration should make that change and toughen its stance on Assad and his ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“My advice for President Trump is to tell Assad that your days of using the Syrian air force to indiscriminately bomb civilians and bomb the opposition's hospitals are over,” Graham said. “That I would declare a safe zone, a safe haven and tell the Russians, if you cross this line, the Assad air force, if you cross this line, you’re going to be shot down.”