President Barack Obama’s lack of leadership on Syria is “a shameful chapter in American history,” Arizona Sen. John McCain said in an exclusive Newsmax TV interview.
“A lot of that money went through Damascus — believe it or not — and never saw the people that are struggling against this incredibly brutal murderous regime.” McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, tells Newsmax.
McCain was referring to the $365 million, including an additional $155 million approved by Obama on Tuesday, in humanitarian aid for those under the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
The aid is meant for food, medical care, and clothing for the 4 million people in the war-torn country and the more than 700,000 who have fled.
Under Assad, Syria has been in a civil war for 22 months.
“Sixty-thousand people have died — hundreds of thousands of refugees — we know all of that,” McCain said. “And the United States has exercised no leadership. No leadership whatsoever.
“What should we do? We should be giving them arms. The Iranians are giving Assad arms, as are the Russians.” The rebels also need “a no-fly zone where they can organize and where they can set up a government,” McCain added.
“Right now, jihadists are pouring into Syria in a very unsettling and unfortunate fashion — and we are to blame. Everything that they said would happen if we intervened has happened because we haven’t intervened.
“There’s no leadership,” the ranking GOP member of the Senate Armed Services Committee charged to Newsmax. “There’s no presidential leadership. And we’re going to pay a very, very heavy price for it.”
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