Two Senators Say U.S. Should Arm Syrian Rebels [McCain & Graham]

The New York Times ^ | February 19, 2012 | ALISSA J. RUBIN

[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...

[Buddy Sorrell]

I wouldn’t trust either of these idiots to water my plants. Maybe Graham is looking for work over there as a dancing boy.

[chris37]

Jesus Harold Christ, I knew it was these two useless f*cktards before I even read....

[cripplecreek]

LOL it was so easy.

McCain talks a big game about being a fiscal conservative but these endless military adventures get pretty freakin expensive after a while.

[hummingbird]

Crazy talk....I feel like I'm having a nightmare and can't wake myself up.

[Venturer]

These two people are insane.

Giving weapons to the opposition is like a death warrant for Christians in Syria.The Islamics will only be worse than the tyrant Syria has now.

Don’t either of them ever read a paper?

[jjotto]

Remember, McCain wants new and increased aid for the radical Muslims now in charge of Libya and Egypt too!

[U-238]

Please elaborate.

[Navy Patriot]

At least Assad Sr. knew how to deal with the Muslim Brotherhood:

The Hama massacre occurred in February 1982, when the Syrian army, under the orders of the country's president, Hafez al-Assad, conducted a scorched earth operation against the town of Hama in order to quell a revolt by the Sunni Muslim community against the regime of al-Assad. The Hama massacre, carried out by the Syrian Army under commanding General Rifaat al-Assad, President Assad's younger brother, effectively ended the campaign begun in 1976 by Sunni Islamic groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, against Assad's regime, whose leaders were disproportionately from president Assad's own Alawite sect.

The 40,000 MB terrorists killed convinced the Muslim Brotherhood to leave Syria and pretend to renounce violence.

They made themselves busy in Egypt, assassinating two Presidents, but were subject to enough pressure to relocate to Afghanistan and become an integral part of forming al Queda.

Assad Sr. was the only guy the Muslim Brotherhood was afraid of.

[U-238]

I can count only three times Syrians have cooperated with the United States:

1.Sepetember 11
2.Gulf War One
3.USS Cole.

The Syrians are on the list of State Sposored Terrorism list.

[U-238]

Very Good Points

[Leaning Right]

The Arab League needs to stop treating us like their paid mercenaries.

But it's worse than that. The Arab League doesn't pay us. We stupidly act like unpaid mercenaries.

[Capt. Tom]

I say we go for Operation Chaos - arm the rebels and keep this thing going.

That was my first reaction to the situation. "Why do we want to stop this war."
Both sides, and their supporters are anti- American.
The Al Qaeda backed Sunnis vs the Iranian and Russian backed Alawite Shiites. I would not get in between them. -Tom

[Ditto]

What’s wrong with this picture?

McCain and Graham? There is the old idiot from Ariazona... and his Sock Puppet South Carolina. Enough said.

I'd just like to ask either of them... what the hell can we do about anything that goes on there? We can't even control this country anymore. They don't give a damn what we say anymore, and Europe is even more of a joke than we are!

It's out of control. Period.

The only thing I think about that part of the world anymore is there is going to be at least one, if not more, very big explosions there soon, and we can't do a damn thing about it.

Our chance to change the outcome was around the time that Harry Reed proclaimed defeat in Iraq and Nancy Pelosi donned the Studda Bubba scarf to kiss Assad's ring.

Well... Nancy had a bigger enemy back then... a Republican president, so cuddling up with a sadistic Mideast mass murderer was justified in her corrupt little Washington politically calculating mind. She so wanted to insult President Bush that she decided to make love to a thug.

I honestly doubt that she has any regrets... and I honestly doubt she is even capable of regret. Politics is all that matters to her. It helped her and her party at that moment when things could have changed for the better, but gaining a temporary advantage was far more important to her.

Maybe Nancy should call her old buddy Assad and tell him to keep the slaughter to the minimum --- maybe 200,000 --- because all those decaying bodies and the methane they emit might impact global warming. Sort of like UN carnage limits instead of carbon limits. ;~(

Then she can take credit for that at the next Global Warming Circle Jerk.

[Leaning Right]

I can count only three times Syrians have cooperated with the United States

I'll bet that's three more times than a new Syrian Caliphate would cooperate with us.

Back in the 1970's, mobs protested violently against the Shah. Good ol' Jimmah Carter sided with the mob against the evil dictator. Shah out, Ayatollah in.

The situation is not identical today because Assad is not our ally as the Shah was. But there is still a lesson to be learned.

[U-238]

Syria has been on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism since the list’s inception in 1979 and deems it to be a “safe-haven” for terrorists. In 1986, the U.S. withdrew its ambassador and imposed additional administrative sanctions on Syria in response to evidence of direct Syrian involvement in an attempt to blow up an Israeli airplane

[U-238]

Agreed.

[The_Reader_David]

Well, McCain and Graham were all in favor of the same sort of policy in the Balkans, so there’s no surprise here.

After all, it’s only Eastern Christians (in the Balkans just us Orthodox, though in Syria there are Jacobites and Melkite Uniates as well) who will get slaughtered, not Latins or protestants, so who cares? The Saudis will be pleased.

[U-238]

If look at the two incidents at that list those involve Al Queda.Syrian Intelligence did not like Bin Laden. Syrian Intelligence supports Hamas and Hezbollah. Al Qaida has been helping the rebels in Syria.

[rawcatslyentist]

>"Instead they apply pressure to us (The Saudis are cutting oil output) so we can go in and piss some more islamderthals off so they don’t have to feel the heat."

Hey it's the best govt Saudi oil money can buy.

[jakerobins]

I’m SO tired of hearing about Sen. Graham....I will be so thankfull when we South Carolinians can vote the goober out in 2014!!