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John Mccain: McCain & Airstrikes On Syria

March 6, 2012 by · Comments Off on John Mccain: McCain & Airstrikes On Syria 

John Mccain: McCain & Airstrikes On Syria, Republican Senator John McCain yesterday urged the U.S. to launch military airstrikes against Syrian president Bashar Assad’s regime to force him out of power.

It was a dramatic call for military intervention that went directly against the plan of action favoured by the Obama administration and its European and Arab partners.

McCain, the GOP’s senior member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on Capitol Hill that the U.S. should arm Syrian rebels and spearhead a military effort to support them.

Senator McCain said: ‘The only realistic way to do so is with foreign air power.

‘The United States should lead an international effort to protect key population centers in Syria, especially in the north, through airstrikes on Assad’s forces.’

He said the benefit of leading the military effort was that it would allow the U.S. to better empower Syrian groups.

McCain added: ‘If we stand on the sidelines, others will try to pick winners, and this will not always be to our liking or in our interest.’

He is the first U.S. senator to publicly call for a military attack on Assad’s regime.

The incendiary remarks came as American and European governments asked Russia’s newly-elected president Vladimir Putin to rethink his anti-interventionist stance on Syria.

The move from Western leaders appeared to be an increasingly desperate attempt for consensus to stop Assad’s crackdown that has killed more than 7,500 Syrians.

Thousands of Syrian civilians fled to neighboring Lebanon yesterday, fearing they would be massacred in their homes.

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