CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
March 5, 2012 – 3:15 p.m.
McCain Calls for Air Strikes in Syria
By Emily Cadei, CQ Staff
Sen.
His remarks came on a day that a number of lawmakers, most notably Senate Minority Leader
The growing rhetoric on Capitol Hill regarding both Middle Eastern hot spots is putting added pressure on the Obama administration, which has been trying to plot a careful diplomatic course in both cases.
On Syria, McCain, R-Ariz., altered his own position on the situation, going further than others on Capitol Hill who have called for some kind of action.
In early February, McCain, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, emphasized technical assistance as the best way for the United States to aid the Syrian opposition. Speaking on CBS on Feb. 9, McCain said, “If we really want to help these people, I’m confident we can find ways to do so without . . . boots on the ground or active intervention.”
But speaking on the Senate floor Monday, McCain said it is now clear that “some kind of intervention will happen, with us or without us,” probably to be orchestrated by Syria’s neighbors.
The United Nations estimates that more than 7,500 people have been killed in the uprising, in which the Assad regime has sustained a long, bloody crackdown against a loose coalition of opposition forces.
“So the real question for U.S. policy is whether we will participate in this next phase of the conflict in Syria and thereby increase our ability to shape an outcome that is beneficial to the Syrian people, and to us,” McCain said. “I believe we must.”
McCain said that providing military assistance to opposition groups is no longer “sufficient to stop the slaughter and save innocent lives. The only realistic way to do so is with foreign airpower.”
McCain said the United States should not “go it alone” in such an operation but, rather, join with allies in the Persian Gulf region, including Saudi Arabia, that have called for a more aggressive strategy to end Assad’s reign. The senator pointed to Turkey as a key partner in any military intervention.
According to McCain, the United States “has a clear national security interest” in forcing Assad to leave power. In that sense, “the stakes are far higher” than in Libya, where McCain also supported intervention to stop the government’s slaughter of civilian protesters.
Later in the day, he issued a joint statement with
“It is understandable that the administration is reluctant to move beyond diplomacy and sanctions,” they said. “But our current policy is not succeeding, and the current course is no longer strategically or morally sustainable.”
McCain Calls for Air Strikes in Syria
But others on the Hill, as well as in the Pentagon and State Department, are likely to disagree with McCain, Lieberman and Graham on this issue. The Obama administration has consistently resisted pressure to further militarize the conflict in Syria, citing the disarray among opposition fighters, questions about their identity and allegiances, and worries about spillover violence that could upset a delicate regional balance in the Middle East.
Instead, the administration is emphasizing sanctions to put pressure on Assad, along with humanitarian assistance to Syrian civilians fleeing the violence.
The Treasury Department took a largely symbolic step on that front Monday, sanctioning Syria’s state television and radio.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled Wednesday to mark up a Syria sanctions bill (
McCain on Monday acknowledged that the concerns of military intervention opponents “have merit, but not so much that they should keep us from acting.” Diplomatic pressure alone, he said, will not be enough to unseat Assad.
“These people are our allies. They want many of the same things we do. They have expanded the boundaries of what everyone thought was possible in Syria,” McCain said of the opposition. “They have earned our respect, and now they need our support to finish what they started.”
AIPAC Watching
McCain’s remarks came amid the annual policy summit for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, where a number of senior lawmakers addressed the influential pro-Israel group and discussed conditions in the Middle East.
“Confusion about where America stands has raised questions about what some of our leaders in Washington are willing to put up with,” House Majority Leader
It was Iran, however, and its alleged ambitions to develop and build nuclear weapons that dominated speakers’ remarks.
A day after President Obama said military action might be necessary to stop Tehran’s development of nuclear weapons — while, at the same time, cautioning against all the “loose talk of war” in Washington — McConnell outlined his threshold for using force against Iran.
“If Iran, at any time, begins to enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels or decides to go forward with a weapons program, then the United States will use overwhelming force to end that program,” McConnell told the audience at AIPAC.
Howard Kohr, the group’s executive director, said it will continue pressing for stronger U.S. threats against Iran, indicating that Obama’s warning was not sufficient.
McCain Calls for Air Strikes in Syria
Lieberman distanced himself from the president, making clear that Obama’s threshold of Iran developing a nuclear weapon before the U.S. responded militarily was too high.
“The time for action is before they have the capability to put a bomb together,” Lieberman said, drawing a distinction between nuclear weapons capability and weaponization. “If we wait until they have that capability, it will be too late.”
Lieberman is a co-author, along with Graham and Pennsylvania Democrat
A bipartisan group of House members introduced a similar amendment last week.
Jonathan Broder contributed to this story.