Posted on 02/19/2012 6:49:38 PM PST by Hunton Peck
With the Syrian government continuing its deadly crackdown on its citizens, two senior American senators who were on their way to the Middle East spoke out strongly on Sunday in favor of arming the Syrian opposition forces.
¶ The senators, John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, both Republicans, laid out a series of diplomatic, humanitarian and military aid proposals that would put the United States squarely behind the effort to topple President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. The senators, both of whom are on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that rebel fighters deserved to be armed and that helping them take on the Syrian government would aid Washington’s effort to weaken Iran.
¶ Syria relies on Iran for financial and military support, and the governments in Damascus and Tehran have sectarian ties as well: Iran has strongly backed the Syrian Shiite minority and the offshoot Alawite sect that makes up Syria’s ruling class.
¶ “I believe there are ways to get weapons to the opposition without direct United States involvement,” Mr. McCain said. “The Iranians and the Russians are providing Bashar Assad with weapons. People that are being massacred deserve to have the ability to defend themselves.”
¶ “So I am not only not opposed,” he said, “but I am in favor of weapons being obtained by the opposition.”
¶ Syria’s crackdown continued on Sunday, including action near the heart of Damascus, in the Mezze neighborhood near the presidential palace. A day after security forces opened fire on a large demonstration there, killing at least one person, residents reported a heavy concentration of troops throughout the city, apparently sent to head off another protest.
¶ At least 14 people were reported killed around the country, some by the government and some by armed opposition forces, according...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Everybody knows the US will do nothing, or worse, stab a friend in the back, as long as Zer0 or a Rat is President. As we speak Zer0 is doing everything he can to persuade Israel to NOT attack Iran.
Yet we don't hear much from Israel, why is that?
There is one coalition that is backing existing stability as opposed to one side or faction.
That coalition has credibility regarding resolve and the willingness to kill, and they have nuclear weapons. This coalition is universally condemned by all the same entities that condemn Israel. Finally, the members of this coalition have good relations with Israel.
It is possible that returning stability to the Middle East simply requires preventing the Muslim Brotherhood from expanding by having the resolve to kill them wholesale and turn their works into black glass should they become irritating.
McCain and Graham???
War Mongering Rinos!!!!
When the Schumer hits the fan here in the US of A will they be this ready and eager to arm American rebels?
McCain has done so much damage to America. What a disgrace this man is. He needs to retire immediately and just fade away. Everything he does seemed aimed at burning the constitution.
Graham and McCain fall into the category of people whom Pat Buchanan derisively calls “democratists,” that is, people who believe that all peoples everywhere in the world, no matter the nature of their culture or state of development, should have have full democracy, and they should have it right now. The same attitude led George W. Bush to empower Hamas to come to power in the Gaza Strip via democratic elections.
You ain’t seen nothing yet. The neocon warriors are already lusting for a war w Iran.
Isn’t it strange that they promote democracy in those countries but never constitutional republics like ours?
I look forward to the day those two fools are out of office, just as much as that joke, in the white house.
>> It is possible that returning stability to the Middle East simply requires preventing the Muslim Brotherhood from expanding
It’s not what’s obvious, it’s what’s ‘inspiring’. Remember how ‘inspired’ the Left was in regards to the MB uprising in Egypt.
The Left is vicariously in bed with those that wish to annihilate Christians and Jews.
Yep, even worse, they provided arms and troops to kill Christians in Serbia and Kosovo.
we should probably stay out. if the ‘Arab League’ wishes to
sort this on their dime, well, they should get to it.
It doesn't matter that Syria may be anti-American. What matters is that Assad will be very much pro-Assad, and that means that you can deal with him. He takes threats very personally, for a good reason.
On the other hand, MB & AQ are amorphous masses. You can't threaten a large group of people with assassination because they know you can't kill them all. This leads to very dangerous decisions because there is no personal responsibility for them.
That’s a good observation. As much as democratists claim to respect backward peoples, they promote nothing more then a democratic ballot, nothing like our elegant constitutional system of checks and balances. That is subtly condescending on their part. Or perhaps it isn’t condescending... if they themselves dislike our elegant system of checks and balances.
“That was my first reaction to the situation. “Why do we want to stop this war.”
Why do we care? Support a brutal dictator or support terrorists. Sounds like the easiest choice in the world to me. Support neither. Let them kill each other.
Perhaps McLame could be put up in Asshat’s finest dungeons..
Isn’t Linsay Graham gay? I heard he’s going to Barney Frank’s wedding in Provincetown this summer.
I’m really sick of hearing anything from McCain and Graham, who seem to each have one half of the same brain. I would like for the various MSM outlets to stop inviting them to speak, as those two do not represent the views of the Republican Party or Conservatives. Like John F’ng Kerry and Chuckie Schumer, however, neither can avoid a camera.
Why in hell do they think it’s right for the US military to become involved in what amounts to a civil war in a foreign country?
Would we in the US like intervention from a foreign country if we were having a civil war? NO! It’s an internal strife and outsiders only want to take advantage.
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