Posted on 02/06/2014 5:59:05 AM PST by xzins
Hell-bent on arming opposition forces in Syria—despite strong evidence that they’re run by Islamic terrorists—John McCain displayed behavior unbecoming of a United States Senator during a recent meeting with Syrian Christian leaders touring Capitol Hill.
The delegation of Syrian clergy came to Washington to raise awareness among lawmakers of the growing crisis among the region’s minority Christian community. Christians make up about 10% of the Syrian population and they are being targeted and ruthlessly murdered by radical elements of the rebel forces, according to the visiting church officials. They say the media and human rights groups in the west have been largely silent on the ordeal of the Christians in Syria.
A number of churches have been destroyed or burned, children were killed when rebels fired mortar rockets at an Armenian Christian school in Damascus and countless others have been abducted by Islamic fighters, the Syrian delegation reveals in a statement published by the research group, Westminster Institute, that brought them to Washington. Eleven nuns have also been abducted and are still in captivity and two bishops are still missing after getting kidnapped during a humanitarian mission.
But Senator McCain, an Arizona Republican, evidently doesn’t want to hear negative stories about the rebels he’s working to arm. So he stormed out of a closed-door meeting with the Syrian clergy officials last week. Held in the Senate Arms Services Committee meeting room, the reunion also included senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Graham is a Republican and the rest are Democrats.
McCain marched into the committee room yelling, according to a high-level source that attended the meeting, and quickly stormed out. “He was incredibly rude,” the source told Judicial Watch “because he didn’t think the Syrian church leaders should even be allowed in the room.” Following the shameful tantrum McCain reentered the room and sat briefly but refused to make eye contact with the participants, instead ignoring them by looking down at what appeared to be random papers.
The outburst was so embarrassing that Senator Graham, also an advocate of U.S. military intervention in Syria, apologized for McCain’s disturbing outburst. “Graham actually apologized to the group for McCain’s behavior,” according to the source, who sat through the entire meeting. “It was truly unbelievable.”
Not really, for those familiar with McCain’s history on this matter. The veteran lawmaker is enamored with a controversial young “Syria expert,” Elizabeth O’Bagy, who has managed to convince him as well as the president and secretary of state that Syrian rebels are mostly moderate and not terrorists. While persuading the U.S. of this, O’Bagy concealed that she was a political director for the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), a group that advocates for Syria’s rebels from Washington D.C.
Before getting exposed by conservative media outlets, O’Bagy claimed to be an objective analyst at a Washington D.C. think-tank that studies military affairs when in fact she had a “reputation as the leading expert on the armed opposition in the Syrian revolution,” according to SETF. In September O’Bagy was abruptly fired from the think-tank for padding her resume and McCain graciously hired her. “Elizabeth is a talented researcher, and I have been very impressed by her knowledge and analysis in multiple briefings over the last year,” McCain said in a statement to the political news publication that broke the story in late September.
Besides the fact that a Syrian Islamist group is essentially steering U.S. policy, a number of domestic and international media outlets have confirmed that terrorists—mainly Al Qaeda—are running opposition forces in Syria. For instance the New York Times published a piece that reveals Islamist rebels—including the most extreme groups in the notorious Al Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda-aligned force—are running the show in Syria. “The Islamist character of the opposition reflects the main constituency of the rebellion,” the story says. “Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of.”
Incredibly, last month an international news agency reported that Congress secretly approved U.S. weapons flow to what officials describe as “moderate” Syrian rebel factions. The White House refused to comment on the back-door operation, but the story cites U.S. and European officials who say the weapons deliveries have been funded by the U.S. Congress, in votes behind closed doors, through the end of government fiscal year 2014.
“Not really. The wife usually has the job of apologizing for the loutish behavior of her husband.”
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Sometimes it’s the other way around.
Unfortunately, when it comes to foreign policy, our choices seem to have narrowed down to neocons (GW Bush, McCain) vs. liberal interventionists (Obama, Clinton). We haven't had a realist candidate on the ballot since Reagan or an "isolationist" since Robert Taft ran for President. And the Democrats haven't run a "pacifist" since McGovern.
Stories of Al Nusra's acts of terrorism and persecution of Christians don't square with McCain's view of them as heroic freedom fighters, so his senile, quasi-demented brain copes with the information in the best way that it can: by blocking it out.
He threw similar hissy fits when confronted with facts about crime and poverty along the AZ/Mexico border when lawmakers in his own state opposed his push for amnesty.
I understand that he has his warts, but the Republican voters in Arizona, as demonstrated by their votes, love him, warts and all.
You can say the same about any hack politician who gets re-elected. Nothing helps more than being an entrenched incumbent. It worked for Obama in 2012, didn't it?
He also can't tolerate someone disagreeing with him and he will come at them with a VENGEANCE!!!
oooohhhhhhh....you could be right!!! Making Linda look reasonable......hmmmmmm.
You can make the broad generalization that under Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and GHW Bush that the Realists had the upper hand but under Clinton the liberal interventionists rose to power and under GW Bush the neocons rose to power.
In 2008 McCain campaigned on a NeoCon foreign policy and Obama campaigned on realist foreign policy. In 2012 Romney went to great lengths to try to project that Realists and NeoCons would have a place in his admiministration, but towards the end of the campaign it became obvious that the NeoCons would be in charge if Romney won.
Bill Clinton retained General Powell(realist) as joint chief, but he resigned because he strongly disagreed with the liberal interventionist Albright. General Powell also resigned under GHW Bush because he strongly disagreed with NeoCon Cheney.
Obama campaigned in 2008 as a Brzezinsky style realist but governed more or less like a liberal interventionist. George W. Bush promised a realist foreign policy as candidate in 2000 but governed like a neocon.
The liberal interventionists and neocons are called Idealists, sometimes Wilsonian Idealists and their idealism manifests as humanitarianism, nation building, and spreading democracy. So it is really the Idealists versus the Realists.
As for Obama, he did follow the realists in 2009 and 2010, but when he began his campaign for re-election in 2011 he shifted to the liberal interventionists. He didn't want to get Carterized. And after his re-election he is back to realist.
For example: He hired George Mitchell(realist) as special envoy to push on Israel regarding the Palestinians. And when Obama began his re-election campaign in 2011, he got rid of Mitchell and stopped pushing on Israel, but not totally. Obama appointed Dan Shapiro(realist) as ambassador to work around Bibi. Then, after re-election, he put Kerry(realist) in as SoS who is pushing very hard on Israel.
That was probably a mistake. It doesn't make any difference how hard Kerry or anybody else pushes on Israel, Israel ain't gonna make a deal with the Palestinians.
By moving Kerry from chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to SoS, Obama lost control of the committee. Liberal Interventionist dem Menendez now controls the committee and Realist republican Corker is very weak.
The infiltration is nearly complete on both sides of the aisle. Huma Abedin with Hillary and the democrats then the Honey Pot Elizabeth O’Bagy to capture McCain and the republicans.
Mc Cain is not insane. He is just following orders of his Progressive masters. The Progressives have enough on him that he would dance naked on 19th Street if told to do so.
bttt
Not true. McCain gets elected and re-elected by Democrats and Independents every time. He's made sure our primaries stay open.
If John McCain had been elected President in 2008, the entire world would be a radioactive, smoldering husk.
...but he’s our SOB
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.