Former
president George W. Bush weighed in tentatively on the situation in
Syria on Friday, saying President Obama "has to make a tough call" on
whether to order a military strike against Bashar Assad's regime.
Bush,
who made his comments during an appearance on the Fox News Channel
where he also discussed his recovery from a recent heart surgery as well
as his charitable works, had his own frustrations with Assad during the
eight years of his presidency.
Bush and his aides expressed
frustration that Assad tacitly supported the flow of al-Qaeda fighters
and arms into Iraq during the height of the anti-American insurgency
there.
"I was not a fan of Mr. Assad," Bush said. "He's an ally of Iran, and he's made mischief."
Unlike
Bush's former Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who referred this
week to Obama's Syria strategy as "mindless," Bush declined to dive deep
into the debate on how Obama should respond to U.S. intelligence
reports that show Assad's regime was behind a massive chemical attack.
"I refuse to be roped in," Bush said.
Former president Jimmy Carter also weighed in on the Syria crisis.
In
a statement released Friday, the Carter Center, the former president's
non-governmental organization, said a "military response without a U.N.
Security Council mandate or broad support from NATO and the Arab League
would be illegal under international law and unlikely to alter the
course of the war.
"It is imperative to determine the facts of the
attack and present them to the public. Those responsible for the use of
chemical weapons must bear personal responsibility," Carter said. "The
chemical attack should be a catalyst for redoubling efforts to convene a
peace conference, to end hostilities and urgently to find a political
solution."
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