In an interview Sunday with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, Sen. Marco Rubio argued that there can never be peace in Syria as long as Bashar al-Assad is the country's leader, because radical jihadists hate him so much that normal Sunni Muslims will "become radicalized in order to fight him."



"I hope they'll reconsider this idea that we're going to get rid of ISIS and then we'll hopefully use Assad and others to come up with a solution," he said about Trump's plan. "It's not going to work."



"Assad was losing back in 2013. If we had armed non-jihadist elements on the ground, they could have overthrown him," he also said.





GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You praised President Trump's strike this week as a first step in a longer strategy. But are you worried based on what we're seeing from Assad this morning, the airfield up and running again, his defiance, that the consequences you feared back in 2013 are coming through now?



RUBIO: Well, first of all, the consequences actually happened. And I would say that three-and-a-half years is a long time.



Here's a loft things that have changed. Here's the first thing that's changed from 2013 to now, the Russians are now there. Assad was losing back in 2013. If we had armed non-jihadist elements on the ground, they could have overthrown him. That's what I thought was the better approach at the time.



The second is that the administration, what they were proposing, had no clear objective. They wanted to blow up some things to send a message. I don't think you use the U.S. military simply to send a message. This strike was limited, but it had a clear strategic objective, which was the destruction or degrading of a key airbase installation that is used in these chemical attacks.



That said, look, I listened to the interview earlier today, I guess, that Secretary Tillerson is going to have on your program, and I'm a bit concerned about the outlines of the strategy, as I understand it. I think it's based on assumptions that quite frankly are not the right ones. And I hope they'll reconsider this idea that we're going to get rid of ISIS and then we'll hopefully use Assad and others to come up with a solution, it's not going to work.



As long as Assad is there, you're going to have a radical jihadist Sunni element, even if you destroy ISIS it'll be al-Nusra and that new coalition. These people who have been killed and gassed and human rights violations against them will never accept Assad as their rightful ruler, and they will join or become radicalized in order to fight him.