McCain: Syrian battlefield will reach the US

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Thursday that the conflict in Syria would eventually affect the United States.

“No one should believe that we will be immune to what is happening in Syria,” McCain said on the Senate floor. “The tide of war does not recede simply because we wish it so.”

{mosads}McCain said Syria is becoming the next Afghanistan by being the new breeding ground for al Qaeda terrorists. He said some U.S. citizens have gone to Syria to fight and are returning, possibly to conduct terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.

McCain said Syrian President Bashar Assad has killed more than 160,000 of his own people who have challenged his regime.

“The sad reality is that after more than three years of horrors, devastation and suffering the conflict in Syria continues to get worse yet the international community has no answers,” McCain said, pointing out that a chemical weapons agreement between the United Nations and Assad was a joke because Assad continues to use chemicals against his own people.

“Can we finally stop hiding behind the fantasy of Geneva and admit there is no hope until the battlefield changes against Assad,” McCain continued. “The longer the devastation goes on, the harder it will be to put Syria back together again.”

McCain has called on the administration to do more to help Syrian rebels but stops short of calling for a U.S. military presence on the ground.