McCain to call for air strikes on Syria

[villager]

Source: Foreign Policy

McCain to call for air strikes on Syria

Later today, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services, will become the first U.S. senator to publicly call for U.S. led air strikes to halt the violence and atrocities being committed by the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"After a year of bloodshed, the crisis in Syria has reached a decisive moment," McCain will say Monday afternoon in a speech on the Senate floor, according to excerpts obtained in advance by The Cable.

"What opposition groups in Syria need most urgently is relief from Assad's tank and artillery sieges in many cities that are still contested. Homs is lost for now, but Idlib, and Hama, and Qusayr, and Deraa, and other cities in Syria could still be saved," McCain will say. "But time is running out. Assad's forces are on the march. Providing military assistance to the Free Syrian Army and other opposition groups is necessary, but at this late hour, that alone will not be sufficient to stop the slaughter and save innocent lives. The only realistic way to do so is with foreign airpower."

The Obama administration's stance thus far has been to clearly communicate that international military intervention is not on the table in Syria. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that the United States is willing to provide humanitarian assistance in Syria immediately... but only if Assad agrees to provide access to affected areas.

McCain, referring directly to the requests for more direct assistance from the Syrian National Council, the Free Syrian Army, and Local Coordinating Committees inside Syria, will call for the United States to lead an international effort to protect civilian population centers in northern Syria through airstrikes on Assad's forces.

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Read more: http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/03/05/mccain_to_call_for_air_strikes_on_syria

[Jon Ace]

1. Good thing this nut never became president (n/t)

[snooper2]

9. +4094

[skypilot]

2. This guy...

...is just itching to bomb someone. Seems to be a thing with him.

[Liberal Veteran]

3. GOP 2 trick pony: Domestic Policy - Tax Cuts, Foreign Policy - Bombs -nt

[harun]

8. Back in the day, people talked about negotiations, settlements, diplomacy, etc.

Now as you said it is only tax cuts and bombings. They don't even bother with anything else anymore.

[drdtroit]

4. Yeah, that won't kill any civilians, you psychopath!!! n/t

[Hugabear]

5. McCain: Itching to see WWIII before he dies

"I've waited 60 years to see us take on Russia and China, goddammit, we need to do something to make it happen! Gitter done boys!"

[War Pigs]

6. i call for airstrikes on mccains 11 houses, and maybe another 1 in palm beach too

[Comrade Grumpy]

7. Why pussyfoot around, McCain? Let's just invade.

What could possibly go wrong?

[HopeHoops]

10. Oh yeah, now THAT will help people who are already being slaughtered from within.

[eringer]

11. He's a Flyer. Let's check with the Smithsonian if we have any Kamikazes available

Let the divine wind blowhard lead his final mission. This will be glorious for the "inverse ace" (having lost five planes already).

[izquierdista]

12. McCain bot here

Need to insert obligatory explanation for McCain

[tabatha]

13. The Pentagon will not allow it.

US bombs Syria.

Iran bombs Israel.

US comes to Israel's aid.

etc, etc

[jakeXT]

14. McCain calls for US-led strikes on Syria without UN mandate

...

Taking the Senate floor, McCain said there will be no UN mandate for the air strikes he deems the only way to stop the violence – but that a mandate isn’t necessary. All the Arizona senator needs, apparently, is a somewhat dubious – and violent – precedent. “NATO took military action to save Kosovo in 1999 without formal U.N. authorization. There is no reason why the Arab League, or NATO, or a leading coalition within the Friends of Syria contact group, or all of them speaking in unison, could not provide a similar international mandate for military measures to save Syria today”, he said.
....

The Arizona senator pointed out that President Barack Obama characterized the prevention of mass atrocities as "a core national security interest" when speaking about Libya, and has committed the credibility of the United States to his repeated calls for Assad to step down.
“If Assad manages to cling to power – or even if he manages to sustain his slaughter for months to come, with all of the human and geopolitical costs that entails – it would be a strategic and moral defeat for the United States. We cannot, we must not, allow this to happen," McCain said.
"Some kind of intervention will happen, with us or without us," he said. "The real question for U.S. policy is whether we will participate in this next phase of the conflict in Syria, and thereby increase our ability to shape an outcome that is beneficial to the Syrian people, and to us."

...

http://rt.com/news/mccain-syria-air-strike-911/

[Phoonzang]

15. Looking at this objectively (yes I know we don't know that here):

Syria is not Libya. Trying to bomb Assad's forces is not going to help...This fighting is being done in close quarters, in highly populated areas, not huge stretches of desert. If you bomb, you'll kill the people you're trying to help. Also, Russia and China (and Iran) won't just stand by and let us knock over another one of their puppets.

[Blue_Tires]

16. Help me out...What's the RW stake in Syria?

They sat on their hands with Egypt (hoping Obama's doctrine would fail), Libya (kinda-sorta straddling the fence), and Bahrain (which is almost as ugly as Syria but with a lot less publicity)...

But Syria and Iran -- They want action, and yesterday...

[Mosaic]

21. Look up PNAC

You'll see their insane plan.

[OnyxCollie]

17. Hey, you kids! Get the hell off my lawn!

Or I'll call for an airstrike on you!

[JaneQPublic]

18. Has McCain ever been known to say...

...bombing really isn't the way to go?

It's pretty much his answer to everything.

[Mosaic]

19. The crazy guy at the end, it's mccain

[Tobin S.]

20. I'm wondering if his announcement might be politically motivated

If Obama does something like McCain suggests, he'll probably get defeated this election and take any progress he has made during his first term down with him. If Obama does not do as McCain suggests, the Republicans can beat him over the head in the press saying he's standing by as innocent people are being killed or something like that. What McCain seems to be ignoring is that US military action in Syria puts the entire world at risk.

I doubt McCain's motives are pure. We usually don't fight wars for altruistic reasons, especially Republicans, which is how he's trying to spin this. I also doubt that he's just a feeble old man making some noise as some have suggested above. The timing and the content of the announcement lead me to believe that he's trying to put pressure on Obama and also create another talking point that right wing pundits and news agencies can latch onto.

[David__77]

25. Yes, if Obama attacks Syria, the likelihood of reelection goes down.

Thankfully, the Democratic neocon/treason faction hasn't won out on this yet.

There will be NO negative to Obama for not intervening - ZERO! The American masses are hardly clamoring for intervening in Syria of all places.

[The Traveler]

22. They desperately need to change the subject

Between the "corrosive" effect of the Republican primary season, and the explosive backlash against their war against women's rights, the need to shift the topic to national security somehow. Right now. Or they are going to take a shellacking in the upcoming elections. And beating the drums for an attack on Iran just isn't happening fast enough, just isn't drawing the public interest.

[sikorsky]

23. He probably thinks it's part of Iran............

[Odin2005]

24. Shut up and go back to your rocker, Gramps.

[CanonRay]

26. Is there anybody he doesn't want to bomb?

How 'bout Iceland and the Maldives for good measure? They're a real threat to us. Let the Arab countries solve their own problems for once.