Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said President Trump sent the right message by striking a Syrian air base Thursday night, and said he needs to follow through by establishing safe zones in Syria and training Kurdish fighters.
“This is the challenge of Bashar al-Assad and then we’ve also got ISIS, so we’ve also got ISIS so we’ve got a long way to go,” McCain said on MSNBC. “But, the signal that was sent last night is a very, very important one.”
Trump ordered the firing of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles into a Syrian air base Thursday night, killing six Syrians. The attack was a response to Assad’s use of chemical weapons on his own people in an attack on Tuesday.
McCain said Trump’s strike was a clear message to American allies in the region that he’s willing to follow through on his tough talk, and that will encourage them to get involved.
“A lot of Arab countries are willing to be partners as long as they think they can rely on us,” McCain said.
McCain said Trump would hopefully see that the American people would respond positively to the air strike and that would encourage him to go forward with more action. He said there’s an appetite in the United States for getting more involved in Syria and ending Assad’s regime.
“This is a beginning, and then a lot of hard things have to be done,” he said. “Without this, a lot of those things couldn’t be done either.”
