Sen. McCain calls for airstrikes against Syria

Sen. John McCain is calling for the U.S. military to use airstrikes in Syria.

McCain, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is the first senator to call for the United States to bomb Syria, as violence there continues to escalate with President Bashar al-Assad’s troops shelling opposition forces.

In a speech on the Senate floor, McCain said that the crisis in Syria has “reached a decisive moment.”

"The time has come for a new policy,” McCain said, according to excerpts of a prepared speech. “Rather than closing off the prospects for some kind of a negotiated transition that is acceptable to the Syrian opposition, foreign military intervention is now the necessary factor to reinforce this option. Assad needs to know that he will not win.”