A former prisoner of war in North Vietnam, Senator McCain says that Obama waited too long to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya. As the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCain had been urging that move for nearly a month before allied warplanes struck targets in Libya on Saturday.
鈥淣ow a no-fly zone is not enough,鈥� he said on CNN鈥檚 "State of the Union鈥� on Sunday. 鈥淭here needs to be other efforts made.鈥� These may include: arming Libyan opposition groups, sharing intelligence on Muammar Qaddafi鈥檚 forces, jamming his communications, and knocking out defense systems.
In a floor statement on March 14, McCain dismissed concerns that Washington doesn鈥檛 know enough about the Libyan opposition groups to arm them. 鈥淭hat is ridiculous. They have been organized for weeks,鈥� he said.
鈥淎 stalemate is a very, very bad outcome here,鈥� he said on an NBC 鈥淭oday鈥� interview on Tuesday. 鈥淎merican policy is that Qaddafi must go.鈥�
