Obama’s decision to deploy 250 military advisers to Syria is too little, too late, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain said in a scathing statement on Monday.
“The deployment of 250 additional U.S. military forces to Syria is a welcome development, but one that is long overdue and ultimately insufficient,” said McCain, R-Ariz. “Another reluctant step down the dangerous road of gradual escalation will not undo the damage in Syria to which this administration has borne passive witness.”
McCain has been one of the toughest critics of Obama’s foreign policy and has accused him of inaction in taking on Islamic State terrorists who are spreading throughout the region, including Syria.
McCain has called for the administration to step up military involvement, not only to fight the Islamic State but to rid Syria of Bashar Assad, who is overseeing a brutal civil war and sanctioned killing millions of his own citizens.
“While the Assad regime, together with Russia, Iran, and their proxies, has slaughtered Syrians with impunity and changed the military facts on the ground, the administration has been on a fool’s errand pleading with Vladimir Putin to negotiate a political solution to the very hostilities he perpetuates,” McCain said. “This is the inevitable result of forsaking the lessons of history: that power abhors a vacuum, that wars don’t end because politicians say so, that there are military dimensions to achieving political solutions, and that the perils of indecision and inaction often outweigh the risks of action.”
“Until the administration reconciles its policy with these truths, Syrians will continue to die, refugees will continue to flood Europe, and the scourge of ISIL will continue to spread,” he said.
