2 Senators Suggest Helping Syrian Rebels

[Judi Lynn]

2 Senators Suggest Helping Syrian Rebels
By ALISSA J. RUBIN
Published: February 19, 2012

KABUL, Afghanistan — With the Syrian government continuing its deadly crackdown on its citizens, two senior American senators who were on their way to the Middle East spoke out strongly on Sunday in favor of arming the Syrian opposition forces.

The two Republican senators, John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, laid out a series of diplomatic, humanitarian and military aid proposals that would put the United States squarely behind the effort to topple President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. The senators, both of whom are on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that rebel fighters deserved to be armed and that helping them take on the Syrian government would aid Washington’s effort to weaken Iran.

Syria relies on Iran for financial and military support, and the governments in Damascus and Tehran have sectarian ties as well: Iran has strongly backed the Syrian Shiite minority and the offshoot Alawite sect that dominates Syria’s ruling class.

“I believe there are ways to get weapons to the opposition without direct United States involvement,” Mr. McCain said. “The Iranians and the Russians are providing Bashar Assad with weapons. People that are being massacred deserve to have the ability to defend themselves.”

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/world/middleeast/mccain-and-graham-suggest-helping-syrian-rebels.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[ProgressoDem]

1. Good on Senator McCain.

The thing I find interesting about foreign policy is it's not always as polarized as, for instance, economic issues where the Democratic Party is left(ish) and the Republican party is far right.

[Fool Count]

4. Yeah, when it comes to screwing people in other countries the two so-called "parties"

are united.

[ProgressoDem]

5. Yeah, we'd really be screwing people in other countries by giving them weapons to defend themselves.

I mean, we'd be screwing Assad at least.

[cheapdate]

6. Be careful what you wish for.

Most of what I've read of the confusing morass in Syria suggests that the Sunni majority wants nothing less than the eradication of the ruling Alawite minority. If the sectarian violence and murder in the city of Homs is any indication, it's a genocidal fight to the death that's in store if the violence continues.

"Civil war in Syria would be of a brutality and level of bloodshed far beyond what is transpiring in Libya – as veterans of Lebanon’s civil war that lasted from 1975 to 1990, or of the sectarian bloodletting in Iraq in 2006-07, can attest."

"There is no doubt that Assad’s police state is corrupt and brutal. There is every reason to press Assad towards reform. But it has become plain that negotiated reform is not on the agenda of the rebels. To the contrary, the bombs that killed 28 and wounded 235 in Aleppo, no doubt set by Sunni suicide bombers, probably operating through al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, were intended to elicit government repression, not to encourage negotiation."

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/02/17/hypocrisy-and-syria/

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/14/syrias-ruling-alawite-sect/

[xtraxritical]

10. The issue has been thoroughly studied by the DoD and they say no.

Both McCain and Ghram know this, they're just grandstanding their Grand Old Patriot credentials to generate some buzz around themselves. Let's get these buffoons out of there already. NO MORE WAR!

[ProgressoDem]

17. All the more reason to get involved.

I don't want the people of Syria to look to Al-Qaida as their saviors once this mess is over. I'd rather they know the United States was their friend.

[Tunkamerica]

15. More weapons for everyone everywhere.

Everybody's scared of somebody.

[ProgressoDem]

18. Huh?

Yeah, people that are being massacred tend to be pretty scared of the people that are butchering them. Same goes when those people start to fight back --- I'd be afraid if I was Assad.

[ronnie624]

20. Sowing conflict in the Middle East

Last edited Tue Feb 21, 2012, 01:12 AM - Edit history (1)

has been a central strategy for dominating oil reserves there for more than a century, rationalizations not withstanding. It also makes U.S. arms manufacturers lots of money.

[Tunkamerica]

21. It's been stated many times recently that there may be no right side in this conflict

adding more weapons would hardly make it better.

[tabatha]

2. And the US military says no, because the US may be arming Al Qaeda.

There are only suspicions about Al Qaeda being in Syria (depending who is blamed for the bombings, and it looks like it was the Syrian regime).

But if there is one thing that will stop arming is the threat of arming Al Qaeda. Some on Fox News jumped on that bandwagon last year with Libya - saying that the US was arming Al Qaeda. Despite the fact that Libyans said they were NOT AL Qaeda.

From what I have read on the intertubes, Syria will implode before they are armed from outside. Egypt withdrew its ambassador, as are other nations. There is no radio contact in Dasmascus, and things are falling apart.

[madrchsod]

3. stay the hell out of that cesspool...

we have no clue who is fighting who and why.

[Gringostan]

7. Maybe we should sit this one out

We armed the mujaheddin and the Afghan Arabs - look at how that worked out for us. Maybe we should sit this one out and let the Arab countries fight this battle. Don't get me wrong I don't support what Assad is doing, but we can not right every wrong and a surrogate conflict involving the US, China and Russia has disaster written all over it.

[razorman]

8. Agreed. We keep sticking our nose where it doesn't belong. Iraq. Libya. Egypt. Now Syria.

We have no business interfering in any of those places.

[UrbScotty]

9. Since arming the Taliban worked out SO well for us!

[Hulk]

11. Leave it to Beavus and Butthead....

Maybe we could give them a couple of nuclear missles to beat them back with. These two war mongering idiots are up for ANY war (they don't have to send their children to fight). How utterly pathetic.

[Tunkamerica]

16. It's Beavis.

Yeah. Huhuh huhuhuh. Beat. Huhuhuh huhuh.

[former9thward]

19. Actually McCains's son went to Iraq and Afghanistan.

But that aside we need to stay out of those countries.

[awoke_in_2003]

12. we cannot afford it...

plain and simple. Look around, people- the empire is crumbling and we cannot keep over extending ourselves.

[Historic NY]

13. Gen. Dempsey says they can't even identify the opposition ...

"I think it's premature to take a decision to arm the opposition movement in Syria, because I would challenge anyone to clearly identify for me the opposition movement in Syria at this point," Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS."

"There's a number of players, all of whom are trying to reinforce their particular side of this issue. And until we're a lot clearer about, you know, who they are and what they are, I think it would be premature to talk about arming them," Dempsey said.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/19/us/syria/index.html

The FSA is made up of defectors from the Syrian military, led by Col. Riad al-Assad. Many of the defectors have made their way out of Syria with weapons taken from barracks, so it is unclear if they even need arms.

Still, while we can’t prove that arms are flowing yet, officials have given us reason to believe such aid may be forthcoming. Rep. Steve Chabot (R – OH), the head of the House subcommittee on the Middle East, is openly calling for armament of the rebel

http://news.antiwar.com/2012/02/10/russia-west-arming-syrian-rebels/


Its interesting the the Republicans are all rushing to arm an opposition that hasn't asked for weapons.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

14. McCain and Graham have no interest in the rebels

All they are looking for is a new war