“By the way, we should have cratered the runways.” ~ McCain on the Syria strike.
McCain says administration rhetoric “partially to blame” for chemical attack in Syria
Never Trumper John McCain did some Trump bashing on left-wing CBS.
President Donald Trump’s administration are “partially to blame” for encouraging Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s apparent use of chemical weapons on his people last week, the failed presidential candidate said.
“I think it [the administration] probably was partially to blame. And Secretary [Rex] Tillerson basically saying the same thing after kind of contradicting himself and then saying the same thing argues vigorously for a plan and a strategy,” the Arizona senator said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“As I said, again, taking this action I support and was important.” Tillerson had said in late March that the Syrian people would determine Assad’s fate.
He also wants a war strategy.
McCain said the Trump administration needs to have a more concrete strategy in dealing with Syria and shouldn’t treat Thursday’s U.S. missile strikes as a “one-time deal.”
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He emphasized that just going after chemical weapons ignores how large a problem Syria has become. McCain also rejected a statement by Tillerson that the U.S. needs to prioritize defeating the Islamic State in Syria before trying to stabilize the country.
McCain said the U.S must also be concerned about other reported war crimes by the Assad regime, such as using barrel bombs and starving thousands of prisoners.
He wants to fight ISIS, Syria, Russia, Iran all at the same time we’re fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, et al, unless he thinks we can go to war with Syria and have none of the Syrian allies react. In fact, Chinese troops have been reportedly spotted in Syria.
“So there’s a lot of war crimes that are taking place. And another aspect of this that I do not agree with the secretary is that you have to just concentrate on ISIS,” McCain said. “We can walk and chew gum.”
He also complimented Trump and said he would think differently about Trump [because missiles and threats of war were involved?].
“I can say if ISIS could hit as they would, the San Bernardino people are connected to radical Islam. We’ve had attacks here at home, I would say this about President Trump, I’m proud of him. He did something Obama did not do and if I met North Korea I’m going to think differently about Trump. He told Assad, he didn’t draw a redline he just acted.”
Graham has reservations though he thinks it’s good as a first step.
“As I said again, taking this action I support and was important. But we’ve got to have strategy and a plan to follow through. Just a one time deal is not going to be productive. And saying we’re only going after chemical weapons areas ignores the enormity of the problem. A very small portion of the people who have been slaughtered in Syria have been slaughtered by chemical weapons.”
Robert Kagan wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post noting it will take more than a bombing to clean up Obama’s mess in Syria. While that may be true, let’s tread carefully and not listen to McCain and Graham.
Of course, Rubio/Graham/McCain all being interviewed non-stop since the Syria strike. All licking their chops calling for more action. 🙄
— Asa J 🇺🇸 (@asamjulian) April 9, 2017
Hope @realDonaldTrump reads this buried in @nytimes. pic.twitter.com/bXi2QIVnNV
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) April 9, 2017
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