McCain hits Russia’s support for Syria

Mr. McCain and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, Connecticut independent, visited a camp for Syrian refugees in Turkey in April.

“I have seen my share of suffering and death, but the stories that those Syrians told still haunt me — men who had lost all of their children, women and girls who had been gang-raped, children who had been tortured,” Mr. McCain said.

Syrian army defectors told the visiting senators that their officers urged them to kill, rape and torture as a tactic of terror and intimidation.

Mr. McCain warned of the consequences of delaying international intervention in Syria.

“The longer this conflict drags on, the more radicalized it becomes, and the more it turns into a sectarian civil war with an escalating spiral of violence that Syrians alone cannot stop,” he said.

“If we fail to act, the consequences are clear. Syria will become a failed state in the heart of the Middle East, threatening both our ally Israel and our NATO ally Turkey,” he added.

© Copyright 2013 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.