After months of advocating direct military intervention against the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) have made a surprise trip to the Turkish-Syrian border to meet with leaders of the Free Syrian Army and visit Syrian refugees who have fled violence in their own country.
The senators’ trip was strategically and politically planned. On the first official day of the ceasefire agreement brokered by UN envoy Kofi Annan to end attacks by government forces and halt the insurgency vying for international support, the visit is meant to give legitimacy to the Syrian opposition fighters and rally Washington to arm them.
“We respect Mr. Annan’s desire to find an end to the killing in Syria. Unfortunately, Bashar al-Assad does not share this goal. That fact has been clear to many of us for months, but it should now be undeniable for everyone,” the senators said.
Their statement intentionally omits any mention of the fact that elements of the opposition have flouted and rejected Annan’s peace plan, refusing to cease violence. Other elements of the opposition – which is too fractured and unorganized to have a single voice – have rhetorically accepted Annan’s plan, while acting very differently. This, incidentally, precisely describes Assad’s approach, which the senators do not forget to mention.
Allying with the rebel fighters in a bid to oust the Assad regime is a grave mistake for the U.S. The opposition is unorganized, has itself committed serious crimes, and contains elements of religious extremists. Using them as a proxy to topple the Assad government, then, seems tactically impossible
It’s also strategically dangerous, considering they have no capacity to form a government post-Assad. Finally, ousting Assad fits rather conveniently into America’s imperial plans for the Middle East, especially since it would isolate Washington’s foremost enemy Iran.
But intervention would escalate killing. Syria, like Iraq after the American invasion, would likely descend into chaos.
The U.S. and its allies – like the Assad regime – have endorsed the peace process, while refusing to halt their own reportedly non-lethal aid to the Syrian rebels. Such a policy is probably prolonging the conflict and was not authorized by Congress or any international body. This not only prolongs conflict, but opens the floodgates for yet another war of choice by the Obama administration.
It is obvious McCain and Libermann are inciting riots. They should be arrested.
Not only arrested but shot and pissed on.
"Using them as a proxy to topple the Assad government, then, seems tactically impossible"
Have to disagree with you on this one, because it's a replay of Libya. Now, that's not to say that the Syria gambit will succeed, or be as successful as was the Libya gambit, rather merely to point out that the FedGov has ample reason for confidence that it has found a "winning" modus operandi.
Successful ? To soon to call Libya a success….
2 warmongering scumbags at the top of this manufactured crisis. Would be terrible for a Grad rocket to fall on top of the lot of them.
Can't say I'd miss 'em
I keep wondering if this Syria 'uprising' was instigated by or 'manufactured' in the interest of the Israeli/Zionist regime, the same as in Iraq, creating internal divisions. It's Israel who benefits from the upheavals and turmoil in these ME countries (for the time being ?) Time will tell.
Is this trip, like all the others, paid for with tax payer dollars and if they were injured will we have to pay for their private health expenses?
Well…there goes the neighborhood.
These scumbags are latrine excreta.
Why are senators, senile senators at that, allowed to even do this type of thing? How they are allowed to influence foreign policy is beyond me.
i didnt bother reading this article. the headline was enough news
suffice it to say that the syrian "rebels" have now completely lost all credibility after meeting these 2
WTF?! They pissed how much in tax payer resources to shuttle their wrinkly asses back and forth to visit their puppets?
Imagine the hissy-fit McCrazy would have thrown if HE were President and Obama and Clinton had gone over there and had backroom talks with the rebels? He'd be calling for their heads. The sad part is that you can bet those 2 are making promises that they are going to try and make Obama fulfill. Fools.
Treasonous zio-bastards – the pair of them!
oy vey! You know a country is going down the drain when these two retards show up.
Who els did you expect to visit and feel sorry for Syrian “refugees", King of Sweden…? or son of Shah of Iran whom is asking the Israelis (interview with Israel TV channel 10 two days ago) to pay him and his people to topple the Iranian regime….? Well, there you have it Hillary, I guess you need to ask for increased budget, because I don't think that Israelis would pay him, it have to come from US then to Israel then to MEK and the Shah. What a bizarre way these people can come up with making money out of US, the saddest part is that US state department may pay these people to do something that is close to nothing. As long as the Iranian people want to keep the regime then the regime is theirs to keep. As long as the Syrian people want to keep the Syrian regime, is the peoples regime and they will keep it. So who visits Turkey and who don't is totally irrelevant in this matter.
Terrorists meet terrorists along Turkish-Syrian border.
Maniacal McCain has been Jonesing for war with Syria for a while now. He twittered the following last year:
“Qaddafi on his way out, Bashar al Assad is next.”—Senator McCain via Twitter on August 21, 2011. https://twitter.com/#!/SenJohnMcCain/status/10539…
After all is said and done, whatever is happening now is due to thew lack of leadership in the Arab world. Look at the lot of current people at the helms of every Arab state. None of them is trusted to lead a cattle herd. If they had any kind of honest, true leadership the scumbags above would not dare come close to any Arab border.
How ,only two senators meet the "rebels".I bad that the rest are coming.For sure more leaders of the free world are in their way.
Both should be made to be wrapped in their star of david swastika and paraded through Damascus. Garbage likes this needs to be treated as such…
Remember all the names Kucinich was called last spring when he visited Syria in an effort to diffuse the crisis. He was told to but out and leave everything to the state department. He was told politics stopped at the waters edge and he was called a traitor.
Lieberman and McCain are betraying their country in service to another.
McCain is a Zionist Nut Case – totally insane.
Lieberman is a Zionist TRAITOR to America.
Both need to be put on a boat for a one way sail to Israel.
"they have no capacity to form a government post-Assad"
You say that like it's a bad thing …
The two most obediant US Senators to whatever their boss [bibi] orders them to do as outlined way back in the 1990's by Richard Perle, Douglas Feith etc,. in "The Clean Break".
One could question the need for having Hillary clinton as Secretary of State of the USA.
burnouts meet the fizzling outs
Where was Graham? In conference with AIPAC or on a secret mission to Tel Aviv?