So sayeth John McCain in this NPR article. McCain is a fire-starter whose views on most matters should be disregarded. Here the NPR poll shows dramatically that Americans want no part of the Obama/Boehner/McCain bombing option.
A Sustained U.S. Attack: Support for this option appears quite limited, but there are some, like McCain, who are calling for robust military action with the goal of driving Assad from power.
“We have to pay attention to this region and we have to bring Bashar Assad down,” McCain said.
U.S. firepower has been decisive in removing, or helping remove, several groups and leaders in the past decade, including the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 2003 and Moammar Gadhafi in Libya in 2011. Yet all of those countries remain unstable to this day.
The U.S. could neutralize Syria’s air power advantage and put the Syrian military on the defensive, giving the rebels the opportunity to advance.
But given the extended wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama has been adamant that the U.S. will not engage in a lengthy fight in Syria and has emphasized that U.S. ground troops will not set foot there.
Yet long before the current debate, U.S. military leaders said it would take tens of thousands of U.S. troops in Syria to properly secure that country’s extensive chemical weapons stockpile.
Multiple opinion polls show a solid majority of Americans oppose any military intervention. And aside from France and Turkey, the international community largely rejects military action. If you choose this course, you would be largely on your own.
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