Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) shredded the Obama administration's approach to Middle East policy Wednesday on the Senate floor, castigating its approach to Iranian nuclear negotiations and more broadly its seeming retreat from influence in the whole region.
"This president does not believe in American exceptionalism," he said. "America must lead, or Iran, Russia and other countries will lead, and sooner or later, the United States will pay a very, very heavy price. We must not ignore the lessons of history. We have several times in our history tried to withdraw to fortress America, and every time we have paid a very heavy price."
Talking specifically about the much-criticized proposition that would have relieved sanctions against Iran without getting anything from the Hassan Rouhani regime in return, McCain argued that the Iranians needed to agree to suspend uranium enrichment and development of their nuclear weaponization programs and infrastructure.
"We owe our French allies a great deal of credit for preventing the major powers in the negotiations, the so-called P-5-plus one, from making a bad, bad, bad interim deal with Iran, a deal that could have allowed Iran to continue making progress on key aspects of its nuclear program, and in return it would receive an easing of billions of dollars in sanctions," he said.
Describing Iran's role in arming Hezbollah, aiding the Syrian regime in slaughtering its own citizens in a civil war and supporting Islamix extremism throughout the Middle East, McCain called the blind eye turned by the Obama administration to these actions a "disgraceful conduct" and demonstrated the diminished influence of the U.S. in the region."
"The United States influence and power throughout the world, especially in the Middle East, is no longer there," he said. "Every Middle East leader that I talked to, everyone I know in the region say they believe the United States is leaving, the United States is not in any way involved, and they are making accommodation for the absence of the United States leadership."