Sen. John McCain has a personal stake in the ISIS and al-Qaeda members currently being targeted by Russian fighter planes. It was just two years ago that McCain found himself in the embarrassing position of having to explain his sleepover with a group of ISIS-affiliated terrorists in Syria. He has repeatedly called for more direct US military involvement to overthrow the Syrian government. Repeated stories of the failures of the US rebel training program have only steeled his resolve. Facts must not get in the way of McCain’s regime change plans for Syria.
But McCain’s plans for Syria have suddenly come to a screeching halt with the arrival of the Russian military. ISIS and al-Qaeda and their affiliated groups are suddenly under the Russian gun. Indeed it appears that Russia has made more progress in two days of bombing than the US-led coalition has made in a year.
What to do? McCain has come up with an idea: arm the rebels with missiles and help them shoot down Russian airplanes!
Asked by Fox News’ Neil Cavuto what the US should do about Russia’s attacks on CIA-trained (but al-Qaeda affiliated) fighters in Syria, McCain responded:
I might do what we did in Afghanistan many years ago to give those guys the ability to shoot down those planes. That equipment is available.
Yes, McCain wants US fingerprints all over shot-down Russian military planes and dead Russian military pilots. Does anyone want to bet that none of his colleagues in the Senate will castigate McCain for publicly threatening to shoot down Russian planes by proxy?
What would Fox News (and the rest of the US media) do if a Russian Senator went on Russian television to publicly call for the Russians to help Assad shoot down American military aircraft over Syria?