Obama must show leadership in Ukraine crisis – Lawmakers÷

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US lawmakers
demanded Friday that President Barack
Obama show strong leadership and take swift
action against Moscow in response to the
downing of a passenger jet over Ukrainian
territory.
Obama accused the Kremlin of fomenting
violence in eastern Ukraine and providing the
separatists with “sophisticated equipment”
such as the surface-to-air missile used to
shoot down the Malaysia Airlines plane, but
he stopped short of accusing Russia of direct
involvement in Thursday’s attack, which killed
all 298 people aboard.
As the administration weighs what to do,
lawmakers have been urging Obama to get
tough — not just on the plane disaster but in
the broader Ukraine crisis, ongoing nuclear
negotiations with Iran and Israel-Gaza
violence.
“We need more leadership from the president,”
Republican congressman Peter King told
MSNBC television.
“It’s important for the president to step up
today and mobilize Western support as far as
economic sanctions” on Russia, he added on
CNN.
King said the United States should “consider
taking away landing rights to our airports and
Western airports as a signal” to Russian
President Vladimir Putin.
Lawmakers criticized Obama for attending two
Democratic fundraisers in New York late
Thursday instead of focusing on the
international crisis.
Adam Kinzinger, a Republican on the House
Foreign Affairs Committee, told Fox News that
Obama needs to be “very clear-eyed” about
the Russian threat and “call Putin out by
name.”
“I hope President Obama shows the same
moral leadership today that President
(Ronald) Reagan showed in 1983,” Kinzinger
said, referring to Reagan’s blistering speech
four days after a Soviet fighter jet shot down
Korean Airlines jet that strayed into Soviet air
space.
“We must react in a stringent fashion” if
Russia is linked to the crash, Senator John
McCain told reporters Thursday.
Washington should arm the Ukrainian military,
dramatically increase sanctions on Moscow,
and “label Vladimir Putin and Russia as a
pariah nation,” McCain said.
“If they’re responsible for this, they deserve it.”
Senator Lindsey Graham said years of weak
Obama diplomacy and passive responses to
crises like Syria have emboldened the world’s
aggressors.
“I’m not blaming the United States for
shooting down the airplane,” Graham said.
“I’m saying that the foreign policy of President
Obama is allowing conflicts to grow in scope
and nature, and that the longer these things
go the more people get drawn in.”