McCain Urges U.S. to Start New War in Syria

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright June 18, 2012
All Rights Reserved.                                         

          U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), President’s Barack Obama’s vanquished GOP rival in the 2008, blasted the White House for not supplying arms to Syrian rebels.  Accused by Russia of aiding Syrian rebels, McCain tells the real story that Obama has kept U.S. arms and personnel away from another Mideast civil war.  Having only recently ended the Iraq War Jan 1, 2012, costing the U.S. treasury nearly $1 trillion and 4,486 deaths, McCain wants to open up a new front.  McCain doesn’t get the concept of “linkage,” where U.S. foreign policy affects events and relationships around the globe.  Already straining essential relationships with Russia and China, the White House has walked a tightrope condemning Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for suppressing an uprising begun Jan. 26, 2011.   Unknown groups of Syrian rebels seek to topple the Assad regime.

            Syria’s uprising began less than two weeks after Tunisian dictator President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled Tunis Jan. 14, 2011, starting the so-called “Arab Spring” that drove Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak to flee Cairo Feb. 11, 2011 for his refuge in Sharm el-Sheikh in the Sinai Peninsula.  While the U.S. State Department supported free elections, they now face the ugly prospects of handing Egypt to the Muslim Brotherhood, a major change from 30-years of predicable rule under Mubarak.  McCain, now 76, prides himself on his military and foreign policy savvy, urges Obama to intervene in Syria.  He knows the lack of support for Mubarak handed Egypt over potentially to the Muslim Brotherhood.  McCain saw free elections hand Gaza to Hamas Jan. 26, 2006, a State Department-labeled terror group.  Calling Obama’s approach to Syria “shameful,” McCain urges military intervention.

            When Bush decided March 20, 2003 to go to war against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, he stretched the U.S. economy to the breaking point.  Already pulled financially by the Afghan War, Iraq eventually broke the U.S. economy, according to Nobel-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.  Finally out from underneath that economic hemorrhage, McCain looks to open up a new bottomless pit in Syria.  With Greeks voting today about staying in the euro, the U.S. will have to be more cautious about how it spends tax dollars.  McCain’s replacement in 2012, GOP presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, already bashes Obama for not undoing the economic damage from the last Republican administration fast enough.  Romney, like McCain, leans toward intervening in Syria, and, possibly Iran, if Tehran doesn’t end its nuclear enrichment program.

            Given uncertainties in the Eurozone, the U.S. economy needs all the stability it can get, certainly not committing billions of tax dollars to more foreign wars that have questionable benefit to U.S. national security.  When McCain ran for president in 2008, he showed little restraint when it came to the military, threatening to bomb Iran.  Insisting he believes in “American exceptionalism,” McCain confuses military might with setting global standards for economic prosperity and human rights.  There’s nothing exceptional about jumping into another war that costs precious U.S. tax dollars and lives.  Bush’s miscalculations in Afghanistan and Iraq took a heavy toll on U.S. blood and treasure.  Opening up a new front in Syria would prove costly in terms of U.S. lives and the treasure.  Economic recovery requires Obama to use the U.S. military more cautiously in the future.

            Estimates of Syrian civilian and military casualties vary dramatically since the conflict began Jan. 26, 2011.  Even with the high estimates of over 13,000 deaths, it’s not advisable to arm rebels with unknown ties to terrorists.  Insisting Russia was supplying arms to the Assad regime, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned of contributing to a greater civil war.  Her accusations about Moscow interference prompted Lavrov’s accusations of arming Syrian rebels.  McCain told David Gregory on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Syrian rebels are being “killed and massacred and tortured and raped,” calling Obama’s reticence “the fact that Americans aren’t helping them is shameful,” refuting Lavrov’s allegation of U.S. involvement.  McCain can’t have it both ways:  Blaming Obama for not getting involved when he knows U.S. surrogates continue to help out.

            When Greeks voted narrowly to stay in the Eurozone today, the White House got an unexpected shot in the arm.  Hawks in Congress like McCain won’t push Barack into a new war before Election Day.  Resolving the Eurozone’s sovereign debt problems opens the door for a sustained Wall Street rally, something that could eventually lead to new jobs.  With the Supreme Court expected to rule on Obamacare anytime soon, the White House faces political minefields.  While McCain would like to expose Barack’s feckless foreign policy, voters are too concerned about pocketbook issues to give priority to foreign wars.  Whatever happens in Syria, the U.S. has too much fish to fry dealing with today’s foreign policy and economic challenges.  Foreign wars only make the prospect for economic recovery more dicey, despite the U.S. tendency to flex its muscles around the globe.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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