McCain pushes for U.S. involvement in Syria
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McCain, top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, released a statement with fellow Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, saying the U.S. and Syria's neighbors should play more of a role aiding the rebels fighting the brutal regime of President Bashar al-Assad. They said weapons, intelligence, money and supplies should be provided, immediately.
"What is needed urgently are tangible actions by the community of responsible nations to ensure that the Syrian people have the means to protect themselves against their attackers," the senators wrote, noting that the U.S. should lead the charge.
"If the community of responsible nations is to assist the Syrian people in bringing Assad's violent rule to an end, there can be no substitute for vigorous American leadership."
The U.S. has not offered military or tactical support, but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Tunis Friday that the U.S. is pledging $10 million in humanitarian aid, and she called for a ceasefire so supplies and aid can get in.
The trio of senators compared the fighting in Syria to Libya's uprising last year and the war in the Balkans in the 1990s. They said the U.S. should work around China and Russia's objections in the United Nations.
They supported the use of American unmanned aerial vehicles observing sites holding weapons of mass destruction, but that the drones should do more and begin documenting violence and death.
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Both Iran and Syria are near Russia.
They are a threat to both of us!
We simply can not be the babysitter for the world and continue to risk the lives of our servicemen and pay for it as well. When we took over Iraq, hundreds of millions of dollars was found stock-piled but we didn't get any of it for our efforts there or to help pay for the cost. Or every wounded or fallen solder get one million for being in a war he should not have been in to start with.