Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) today called “the total lack of leadership that the United States has displayed for the last 14 months” through the massacres in Syria “shameful.”
“The fact is, the United States has played no leadership role. Now 14,000 people have been massacred by Bashar al-Assad, the United States of America, its performance so far has been shameful and disgraceful,” McCain said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“Kofi Annan just announced today that his plan has utterly failed. And what do we need to do? We need to show first leadership. The president of the United States should be speaking out for the people of Syria.”
McCain advocated getting arms to the rebels to give them a fair chance versus the Russian arms flowing into Assad’s regime and Iranian fighters on the ground in support of the dictator.
“We need to establish a sanctuary so that they can organize, they can resist, and the can prevail. I believe that some day he, Bashar al-Assad will go, my question is to the secretary of state and the president of the United States is, how many more have to die before we take action to help these people with other nations?” the senator said. “And I don’t mean American boots on the ground.”
Members of the Senate on the right and left have tried for months to push resolutions advocating more concrete support of anti-regime forces. McCain’s April resolution condemning mass atrocities in Syria calls for the establishment of safe havens while taking steps to ensure that support for the Syrian opposition does not benefit any individuals with terrorist alliances.
McCain said the Syrian resistance “have not been taken over by extremists or al Qaeda, but they could be if this conflict drags on for months and even years.”
He panned the numerous times Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said Assad’s days are numbered while the dictator’s slaughter continues unabated.
“I know these people, these leaders in these other countries, they are crying out for American leadership,” McCain said. “And by the way, when was the last time the president of the United States stood up and said, we are with these people? They are fighting for the same things that we believe in and stand for.”
The “leadership” provided by the Obama Administration to Syria and other countries has been so ineffectual and inept that use of the word “leadership” requires a new definition, perhaps several different definitions for use when appropriate. Humpty Dumpty or Chief Justice Roberts could probably devise some.
That said, I question whether the Obama Administration should attempt to foist its incompetent efforts at “leadership” off on the people of Syria. It seems unlikely to benefit us or them.
Why does the President need to speak out for the people of Syria? Is there any evidence, any, that the people of Syria respect or admire the United States? What does the prime Minister of Japan say to the people of Syria, or the leadership of the Communist party in China – what do they say? Have Arabs, who care for their brothers so much, have they stopped buying Japanese or Chinese goods? They seem very capable of boycotting United States companies, when it suits their purpose, dont they? Any boycott of Chinese, Japanese or German exports? Probably a real opportunity for Ford. What is that? No boycott, except for the continuing boycott of Israeli and US companies. McCain is an idiot. Thank heaven he is not President or China would be loaning us even more money to get into our third war, for the benefit of an ungrateful hateful people that despise us.
Steve you do have a good point, but if Obama and his team of academics would have stood with the people of Iran a number of years ago this whole situation might have been different. Whether we like it or not, we are the leaders of the free world. Leading from behind makes matters worse as you can see.
Syria is not in the free world, and for anyone that understands it’s culture, it will never be in the free world. We don’t have to lead it anywhere, even were”leader of the free world” some Constitutional imperative, which it is not. Sunni Syrians are not Frenchmen waiting to be liberated from the Nazis. They are the Nazis.Whether or not we should have sanctioned Iran earlier is irrelevant to this non-problem. Syria in perpetual civil war does not harm the interests of the United States, if anything, it serves our interests. I don’t know what leading from behind even means, but no I can’t see it makes”matters” worse.
– Prez, but STFU signer of statement against your own country!