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Democrats Slam Trump Tweets on Potential Syria Strikes, US Security Matters

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US Congressman Salud Carbajal and three other Democratic lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Donald Trump for publishing Twitter posts about possible military strikes in Syria and other US national security matters without first consulting military or diplomatic advisers.
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"The decision to respond with military force to these types of heinous attacks is not a simple one, and not one that can be solved in a 280 character tweet.  The president’s tweet earlier this week declaring that missiles were on their way to Syria, we’ve since learned, were sent out without regard to our military readiness in the region and without input from his military and diplomatic advisers," Carbajal said.

Carbajal added that Trump's tweets warning of action in Syria in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack confused US allies and were part of a dangerous pattern of the president tweeting first and asking questions later.

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Congressman Ruben Gallego said Trump could be endangering national security because enemies could take pre-emptive action in response to the president's tweets.

Trump's tweets create uncertainty, are unhelpful, and both sophomoric and dangerous at best, Congressman Mike Thompson added.

On Wednesday, Trump sent out a Twitter message warning Russia to "get ready" for missile strikes in Syria, "because they will be coming, nice and new and 'smart!'"

On Monday, Trump warned in a Twitter post that the US response would come within "24 to 48 hours," but on Thursday, the president tweeted that he never said when an attack against Syria would take place and that it could be "soon or not so soon at all."

Reports about the alleged attack in the Syrian town of Duma emerged on Saturday. The United States and many of its allies have blamed the Syrian government for the attack, but Damascus denies using chemical weapons in Duma.

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