South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham can't seem to make up his mind on whether the United States ought to be sending ground troops into Syria, since he just contradicted himself from the statements he made to Foreign Policy last month during an interview with Bob Schieffer on CBS this Sunday. He has, however, been consistent with beating the war drums and giving dire warnings about the consequences of the United States failing to insert ourselves into the middle of their civil war.
Graham continued the fearmongering on this Sunday's Face the Nation, telling the audience they should be concerned about everything from more terrorist attacks in the United States, to extremists taking over the country and getting a hold of weapons of mass destruction.
Graham also claimed he's really worried about "all hell breaking loose" in the region if the United States fails to intervene. I hate to break it to you Lindsey, but you're a whole lot of years and a dollar short on that one. That ship sailed a long time ago.
I've got a proposal for Graham and his fellow warmongering buddy John McCain -- you first. If the two of you want to lead the charge inserting yourselves into another country's civil war without the support of the international community, you go lead the troops over there and take a spot on the front lines of the battlefield. Let us know how that works out for you.
Full transcript below the fold via CBS.
SCHIEFFER: Let me turn to Syria and the situation there where there are now reports that the Syrian government was using chemical weapons on its open people. The president said last week this could be a game changer. Are you satisfied with the approach the administration is taking?
GRAHAM: No, I haven't been satisfied for a long time. But having said that, Syria's difficult. After the briefings with Secretary of State Kerry, which was powerful, four things are going to happen if we don't change course in Syria. It's going to become a failed state by the end of the year. It's fracturing along sectarian/ethnic lines. It's going to be an al Qaeda safe haven. The second thing, the chemical weapons, enough to kill millions of people, are going to be compromised and fall into the wrong hands.
And the next bomb that goes off in America may not have nails and glass in it. The third thing I worry about is the king of Jordan. He's had 500,000 refugees flood his country from Syria. They could be up to a million to 3 million in the next six months to a year.
And his kingdom could fall and he's a moderating influence, a good ally to us and Syria. And the fourth thing, if we keep this hands-off approach to Syria, this indecisive action towards Syria, kind of not knowing what we're going to do next, we're going to have a war with Iran because Iran's going to take our inaction in Syria as meaning we're not serious about their nuclear weapons program. We need to get involved. And there's a growing consensus, Bob, in the U.S. senate that the United States should get involved.
SCHIEFFER: Well, some of the things that are being suggested, a no-fly zone. That could be pretty dangerous for the United States, could it not, because we understand the Syrian government is setting up anti-aircraft weapons in those populated areas. This will not come without some cost.
GRAHAM: Yeah, there's nothing you can do in Syria without risk, but the greatest risk is a failed state with chemical weapons falling in the hands of radical Islamists and they're pouring into Syria. The longer this goes, the more likely you have a failed state and all hell's going to break loose in the region. It's a disaster for the region. It's going to be a disaster for the world.
One way you can stop the Syrian air force from flying is to bomb the Syrian airbases with cruise missiles. You don't need to go deep into Syria to do that. If you could neutralize the air advantage the Syrian government has over the rebels, I think you could turn the tide of battle pretty quickly. As to arming the rebels, there are more radical Islamic fighters there than last year. And if it goes on six months more, there are going to be more. Let's give the right weapons to the right people.
There are two wars to fight -- one to get Assad out of there. He's really a bad guy, dangerous to the world. The second war, unfortunately, is going to be between the majority of Syrians and the radical Islamists who have poured into Syria. So we need to be ready to fight two wars. You don't need boots on the ground from a U.S. point of view, but you sure do need international actions to bring this thing to a close quickly. If it goes on through the end of this year, the whole region is going to fall into chaos.
