Posted on 02/20/2012 7:43:01 AM PST by WPaCon
John McCain and Lindsey Graham both think it's time the US began to arm the Syrian rebels.
New York Times:
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."
Marc Lynch (Abu Aardvark) thinks that's a horrible idea:
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
He should go fight with them.
He should go fight with them.
Proves: YOU CAN’T FIX STUPID (and you can’t fix his sidekick, “I’m with STUPID”)
That means we shouldn't.
Senator Wheelchair General. And we’re paying for his nursing home.
When the Schumer hits the fan here in the USA will McCain and Graham be this ready and eager to arm Americans defending the Constitution?
Is there any foreign conflict going on that McCain doesn’t think the US should meddle in? I’m loathe to agree with Ron Paul on some things, but he’s right when he denounces people like McCain for trying to police the world. If the US armed these muslim rebels, you’d see a jihadi sunni state pop up in Syria that would be twice as hostile to America and Israel. When faced with these facts, McCain would shrug his shoulders and walk away. It’s like the RINO McCain types are addicted to meddling in world affairs. They don’t care about the cost or outcome as long as they’re causing problems.
Yay! Also, get into another unconstitutional, unneeded and costly war we cannot afford
Does McCain know who is going to be running things if Assad is forced out? If not, maybe we should stay out of this. We thought the pro-democracy crowd was going to take over in Egypt after Mubarak left, and now we are stuck with the Muslim brotherhood and the military.
Also, by what McCain says, he wants a conflict with both Russia and China more than anything. Is he ready to take the US to war with Russia/China over a worthless country like Syria?
GTH McPain.
This all worked out so well in Libya and Egypt. Not to mention Iraq and the mother of all screw ups, Iran. What could go wrong?
We need to quit putting our nose in the business of other nations especially those in the middle east. Either we declare war and go and leave them in a smoking pile of rubble until they beg us to stop or let them sort it out internally.
Oh hey by the way Congress, lets let King Obama cut the armed forces by 78,000. Obviously we don’t need them. How utterly foolish !
That McCain sure is a slow learner, isn’t he.
Those two old liberals needed to go south with barney franks. Castro would love them.
McCain’s a moron.
Assad’s bad.
The rebels are worse.
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