John McCain (R-AZ) is against President Obama’s diplomatic victory regarding Syria because there is nothing in the agreement about the use of force and we could have just bombed them from the get go.
When confronted by Meet the Press host David Gregory regarding the difference in goals between McCain and Obama, the Senator’s criticism was that Obama wouldn’t have been bombing already and if he had, it would have been too small, “Of course, the president probably wouldn’t have been bombing and if it had been an unbelievably small attack, I’m not sure -”
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Transcript NBC (emphasis mine):
DAVID GREGORY: Joining me now senator John McCain, Republican from Arizona, member of the Armed Services Committee as you know, one of the most outspoken voices in the senate about US’s policy in Syria which is why I wanted to you here, senator. Look where we’ve gone in a week. I’ve talked to the chief of staff at the white house. He says, look, Russia was not on board a week ago. Assad denied even having chemical weapons a week ago. And now they’re both on board to destroy these weapons and yet you’ve called this deal an act of provocative weakness, why?
JOHN MCCAIN: Well, if — suppose that this deal is made and then Bashar al Assad does not comply and continues, by the way, the slaughter of over 100,000, the problem by the way in Syria is not chemical weapons although as horrible as they are, the 100,000 that have been killed, but suppose that he doesn’t comply. They go to the United Nations. Let me give you the quote from Mr. lavrov. He said, “Nothing is said about the use of force or sanctions.” so they go to the United Nations. It’s clear they would veto again. It is now in the hands of Russia to decide whether Bashar al Assad is really complying or not.
DAVID GREGORY: Can I ask you then how might we be in the United States in a different position if the goal — if the goal was to prevent him from ever using chemical weapons again? I realize your deal is different. Work with me. Don’t use chemical weapons again how might the situation have been different had the president stayed on course and been bombing by now.
JOHN MCCAIN: Of course, the president probably wouldn’t have been bombing and if it had been an unbelievably small attack, I’m not sure —
DAVID GREGORY: Secretary Kerry said –
JOHN MCCAIN: — how often difference it would make. No’s not scary and unbelievably small attack. The point is if the agreement had said that there will be the use of force automatically or the Russians had agreed that they could go under Chapter 7 to the United Nations Security Council, that puts an entirely different cast on it. Right now it’s up to the Russians to decide that.
So, under McCain we would have already bombed – a big attack – no small attack for him, because you see by waiting and trying diplomacy first, we might fail; whereas we all know that invasions never fail, especially in Middle Eastern countries.
Mission Accomplished.
Kudos to David Gregory for actually pushing back against the idea that there is only one goal for Syria and that is regime change. Regime change is McCain’s goal, and he presented it as the solution in this interview. But we’re deducting a point for Gregory’s repeating of the narrative that Obama didn’t “stay the course” and bomb Syria.
It is clear that the President was never on course to bomb Syria if he could get a diplomatic solution in place, and that he used the threat of force in order to get that solution. This shouldn’t be a huge shock, since it’s the exact same foreign policy Obama has always supported, and has explained numerous times.
It is unclear why anyone is still asking John McCain for his opinions on foreign policy, as he has a consistent record of being wrong. Also, this is the man who can’t sort out the newspapers in Russia, so it’s a decent bet that he can’t sort out complex issues like foreign policy.
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