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Keith Ellison was saying he would support Syria strike, now he says he "could support eventually"
Earlier this week Keith Ellison came out in favor of a strike in Syria, as a Congressman who has been known to be one of the more progressive and anti-war members of Congress in the past this announcement came as a huge disappointment to many of the people who supported him in the past.
Well it appears that Ellison heard from the people who helped get him elected because the latest statement I found from him is no longer a clear yes, instead he seems to be taking a step back and opening the possibility that he might actually vote no...
“The question is war is bad almost always, getting the facts straight is extremely important,” he continued. “Getting some kind of exit strategy is important. Would a military strike help the victims whom I’m concerned about like the 1500 people who were killed in the city of Guda on August 21st. Will it work? Will it send the right message to Assad and other authoritarian dictators that they won’t be able to use chemical weapons. Can we degrade Assad’s chemical weapon capability.”
“Those are all questions I need answered.”
“I believe that the world can’t just ignore people who have been the victim of mass atrocities. The world has to do something. Is a missile attack the thing to do? I don’t know. I’m not ruling it out as something I could support eventually. The technical details are important here.”
http://mnprogressiveproject.com/keith-ellison-on-syria/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=keith-ellison-on-syria
To go from a yes he does support military action to not yet but it is something he "could support eventually" seems a bit strange as he seems to be suggesting he might eventually hold the exact same position he held just yesterday. I have liked Ellison in the past, but this is not exactly his shining moment.
This is a good sign however to see one of the key supporters of the war seems to be taking a step back and opening the door to a possible No vote (and considering his status as someone who is generally considered to be anti-war he was a key supporter). Hopefully this suggests he is hearing from people and is seriously considering changing his position to No. I don't know what he was thinking when he came out in support of this but hopefully he realizes how badly he screwed up and will go back to being the anti-war progressive he was in the past.
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