Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, need to understand the United States will not stand for chemical weapons attacks on civilians, Sen. John McCain said Friday.
Speaking in front of reporters on Capitol Hill, McCain said he’s not worried about Russia and Putin escalating the conflict in Syria after President Trump ordered a missile strike on Syria Thursday.
“The Russians only understand one thing, and that is that force is used in response to the commission of a war crime,” He said. “We all saw the pictures of dead children and that kind of thing. If we can prevent it from being repeated, we should.”
McCain has urged Trump to use more force to fight Syrian President Bashar Assad’s war on his own people, especially in the wake of Tuesday’s chemical weapons attack.
Trump responded to those calls with the missile strike that killed six Syrians and damaged an air base. While the attack won’t cripple Assad’s ability to carry out future strikes, McCain praised Trump earlier for taking the first step.
