22 June 2016•Update: 22 June 2016
By Michael Hernandez
WASHINGTON
Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday took issue with more than 50 American diplomats who called for the U.S. to use military force against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Biden said that while he and President Barack Obama support the right of American diplomats to express an opposing view to established policy, the 51 diplomats didn’t ultimately produce tangible policies to remedy the Syrian crisis.
“There is not a single, solitary recommendation that I saw that has a single, solitary answer attached to it -- how to do what they're talking about,” Biden said during an interview with CBS’ Charlie Rose.
Signed by officials working on U.S. Syria policy, the dissent cable makes repeated references to "targeted military strikes" against the Damascus government.
“The president's been fastidious -- calls the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the intelligence community, the director of central intelligence, the CIA, et cetera. 'Tell me what will work. Will this work?' And the answer has repeatedly been, 'No,'" Biden said.
While dissent memos are not unusual, the number of signatures attached to the measure reflected the continued displeasure of many career diplomats with current U.S.-Syria policy.
Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday met with approximately 10 of the cable’s authors and thanked them for expressing their views, according to State Department spokesman John Kirby.
The agency is working on an official response, which should be done “very soon,” Kirby said.
