US SENATOR and former Republican presidential candidate John McCain has warned that a Congressional vote against military action in Syria would be ‘catastrophic’.
He also revealed that to get the support of the Republican Party leadership Obama was pledging, in private talks, a much bigger operation than missile shots across President Assad’s bows.
McCain spoke up after he and Sen. Lindsey Graham met with Obama on Monday.
Graham volunteered that he feels there is now a ‘solid plan’ from the Obama administration to ‘upgrade the opposition’ in Syria.
McCain added: ‘We still have significant concerns but we believe there is in formulation a strategy to upgrade the opposition.’
He said: ‘Now we are talking about ways of approaching this issue in a way that could be effective. We’ve got to see more, but at least they are talking about some options that I think could work.’
Asked whether Obama would expand his targets in Syria, McCain referred to the Navy’s decision to place two aircraft carriers in the Arabian Sea – the USS Truman and the USS Nimitz.
‘I don’t think it’s an accident that the aircraft carriers are in the region’ McCain said.
Yesterday Russia reported that it had detected a ballistic object being fired in the Eastern Mediterranean. The US denied that there had been any such happening, but later admitted that there had been a joint US-Israeli defensive firing of a missile.
Obama is now getting ready for a major assault on Syria and major actions in support of Syrian ‘armed gangs’ after the Congressional vote which he hopes to win with the assistance of McCain.
Meanwhile, the UK is feeling the wrath of the US.
British military chiefs are now being ejected from US meetings about Syria as they are seen as ‘unreliable’ following the House of Commons refusal to join military action.
The role of senior British officers at the US Central Command in Tampa, Florida, has been downgraded because their American counterparts believe that they cannot be trusted with high-level intelligence about a conflict with which they are not involved.
30 British personnel have been working alongside the Americans and French and have been involved in war planning for a number of weeks, including fine-tuning a list of targets and orchestrating military assets.
But after Cameron ruled out an attack following the House of Commons defeat on Syrian action last Thursday, the officers have been told that they can no longer participate in classified plans.
No British officers are now engaged in military planning and none will be involved in the execution of the operation, a British defence official confirmed.
This ending of the special master and slave relationship between the US and the UK has seriously upset the Labour Party leaders. They are distraught at the end of the ‘special relationship’ and are now seeking to backtrack, with MPs asking questions of Defence Secretary Hammond as to whether there will be a second vote on the issue in the House of Commons.
At the moment Hammond is saying that only a massive change in the situation would warrant a second vote.
There is no doubt that Cameron-Miliband in the event of Obama-McCain winning the Congressional vote will seek a second vote to bring the UK into the war.
It is now becoming clearer that stopping the war means bringing down the government and putting in a workers government that will carry out socialist policies to support the oppressed nations and put an end to capitalism and imperialism.
The TUC Congress next week now has a greater than ever importance.
For one year the TUC have been discussing the practicalities of calling a general strike.
With the working class facing massive austerity and a new imperialist slaughter the time has arrived to call it.
The YS will be lobbying the TUC next Sunday. We urge all our readers to join this vitally important lobby to demand that the TUC call a general strike to bring down the coalition and bring in a workers government and socialism.
