FOXNews.com: 'GAME CHANGING' ACT?Lawmakers: US Is Closer To Arming Syrian Rebels

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'GAME CHANGING' ACT?Lawmakers: US Is Closer To Arming Syrian Rebels May 5th 2013, 21:25 Congressional Democrats and Republicans said Sunday that Israel's recent airstrikes on Syria show President Bashar Assad's air defense system is not impenetrable, with one lawmaker suggesting the United States establish a no-fly zone over the Middle East country. Israel on Sunday launched its second airstrike in three days in the Syrian capital of Damascus, targeting a shipment of guided Iranian-made missiles intended for a militant group, said an intelligence official in the Middle East. The attacks mark a sharp escalation of Israel's involvement in Syria's bloody civil war, which has claimed roughly 70,000 people. Assad has been accused of using SCUD missiles and chemical weapons against civilians in the uprising. President Obama has said Assad's use of chemical weapons would cross a red line. He has not taken action beyond giving humanitarian aid and money to rebel forces for defensive military equipment. However, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said last week the administration is reconsidering its opposition to arming the rebel forces. "The red line that the president of the United States [has] was apparently written in disappearing ink," Arizona Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Armed Services, told "Fox News Sunday." "We need a game-changing action." McCain suggested the U.S. establish a "safe zone" and give weapons to "the right people," but repeated that American soldiers should not enter the country. He also said the Israeli strikes "will probably put more pressure on this administration" to act. Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy also suggested that Syria's Russian-made air-defense system was not as solid as thought and suggested the U.S. is getting closer to arming rebel forces.  "The idea of getting weapons in, if we know the right people to get them, my guess is we will give them to them," he said on NBC News' "Meet the Press." Arkansas Republican Rep. Tom Cotton told NBC the U.S. should have started arming pro-Western rebel forces "months ago" and suggest the U.S. consider blocking Syrian air space. "We have to arm the opposition," he told NBC. "I think we also need to move toward imposing a no-fly zone."

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