{"id":18245,"date":"2013-06-12T22:27:16","date_gmt":"2013-06-13T02:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=18245"},"modified":"2013-06-12T22:27:16","modified_gmt":"2013-06-13T02:27:16","slug":"mccain-excuses-syrian-rebel-war-crimes-suggests-hed-tolerate-extremist-takeover-of-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2013\/06\/mccain-excuses-syrian-rebel-war-crimes-suggests-hed-tolerate-extremist-takeover-of-syria\/","title":{"rendered":"McCain Excuses Syrian Rebel War Crimes, Suggests He\u2019d Tolerate Extremist Takeover of Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sen.<\/a>
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By<\/span>\u00a0Ben Armbruster<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Monday downplayed atrocities being committed by Syrian rebel forces and suggested that he would be willing to tolerate extremists taking over Syria because they would most likely not be allied with Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n

McCain has been a forceful advocate of U.S. military intervention in Syria and has spent months in television and other media interviews trying to make his case. The Arizona Republican continued that campaign last night during an interview with Charlie Rose on PBS, highlighting the war crimes Syrian President Bashar al-Assad\u2019s forces have committed to justify more U.S. intervention. When Rose noted that rebels are also committing war crimes, McCain brushed them off:<\/span><\/p>\n

ROSE: But at the same time you do hear about atrocities on the other side as well. You know, wherever it\u2019s coming from within the other side you do see not only stories but video?<\/span><\/p>\n

MCCAIN:\u00a0But you know, Charlie, you see that as isolated incidents of people who have just gotten so battle-hardened and angry and this happens in warfare<\/strong>. What you\u2019re seeing from the other side is orchestrated training and tactics to intimidate and cow the population from the Bashar al-Assad side. So it\u2019s \u2014 it\u2019s dramatically, mind you, different. Horrible things are happening on both sides but with Bashar al-Assad\u2019s forces it is a tactic that they use to intimidate and cow the population.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rose later challenged the idea of greater U.S. involvement in Syria\u2019s civil war, noting that \u2014 because many of the forces battling Assad<\/span>\u00a0have strong ties to al-Qaeda<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0\u2014 there\u2019s a chance that those who take over in the event Assad would fall would be no friend to the United States. But McCain dismissed that concern as well, suggesting \u2014 most likely correctly \u2014 that any Sunni al-Qeada affiliated group won\u2019t be allied with Shiite dominated Iran:<\/span><\/p>\n

MCCAIN: So if Bashar al-Assad wins the connection to Hezbollah remains, Iranians mischief throughout the region continues. […]<\/span><\/p>\n

ROSE: Notwithstanding that Syria might become a failed state and might be ruled by, you know, a group of people who have no interest in good relationships with the United States?<\/span><\/p>\n

MCCAIN:\u00a0But not an ally of Iran, seeking to facilitate their efforts to create mischief throughout the Middle East<\/strong>. I mean I\u2019m not saying it will be a Jeffersonian democracy and it may be long and difficult. But there is no doubt of the relationship between Bashar al-Assad and Iran and Hezbollah, that\u2019s why Hezbollah is in, because if they lose Bashar al-Assad Hezbollah loses their lifeline.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Watch the clip<\/span><\/a><\/span>:<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uNQyuMlJaLI<\/p>\n

A<\/span>\u00a0report released on Tuesday<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0by an independent United Nations panel \u2014 which the New York Times<\/span>\u00a0said<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0\u201cis seen by diplomats as providing the most factual and authoritative record of developments in Syria\u201d \u2014 found that not only are Assad\u2019s forces committing atrocities and war crimes on a mass scale, but so are forces fighting Assad\u2019s military.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnti-Government armed groups have also committed war crimes, including murder, sentencing and execution without due process, torture, hostage-taking and pillage,\u201d the report says, adding that \u201c[t]hey continue to endanger the civilian population by positioning military objectives in civilian areas.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

During his interview with Rose, McCain said the U.S. should give these rebels shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles. \u201cThese resistance forces need to have<\/span>\u00a0MANPADS<\/span><\/a><\/span>. They\u2019re shoulder fired anti-air missiles,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

It appears that McCain will overlook pretty much any consequence \u2014 rebel atrocities and extremists taking over \u2014 to get what he wants in Syria. He is even abandoning<\/span>\u00a0his usual prerequisite<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0that the U.S. government should support and implement whatever military commanders want in any potential or ongoing conflict. \u201cOur military with all respect, some of their leaders are told how hard it\u2019s going to be, one thing I love and respect our military, but if they don\u2019t want to do something they can find reasons not to do it,\u201d McCain told Rose, referring to the U.S. implementing a no-fly zone in Syria. \u201cI guarantee you there are many military people who are not in that chain of command who would say that this is eminently doable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Ben Armbruster Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Monday downplayed atrocities being committed by Syrian rebel forces and suggested that he would be willing to tolerate..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[166,21,84,189,97],"tags":[228,197,226,199,201,345,277],"class_list":["post-18245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-international","category-statements","category-us-military","category-us-news","tag-colonialism","tag-imperialism","tag-imperialist-war","tag-iran","tag-lebanon","tag-reactionary-watch","tag-syria"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenix.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/john-mccain.jpg?fit=252%2C245&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}