McCain Says Airstrikes in Syria Put Pressure on Obama to Act Senator John McCain, who has long advocated for more forceful United States support of the Syrian rebels, said Sunday that the two airstrikes just outside of the Syrian capital in recent days - which the Syrian government said were carried out by Israel - were likely to increase pressure on President Obama to act. Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, said on "Fox News Sunday" that the raids appear to have weakened the argument that Syria has a far more daunting air defense system than, for example, Libya had under Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. "The Israelis seem to be able to penetrate it fairly easily," he said, although the Lebanese Army said that in the first of the two attacks, on Friday, Israeli warplanes fired into Syrian territory from Lebanese airspace. A second airstrike was reported Sunday morning. Mr. McCain referred to comments by Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who has described the Syrian defenses as "a much denser and more sophisticated system" than Libya's. Mr. McCain said the United States was capable of disabling the Syrian air defenses on the ground "with cruise missiles; cratering their runways, where all of these supplies, by the way, from Iran and Russia are coming in by air"; and by using Patriot missile batteries to defend a safe zone for rebels and refugees. He has repeatedly urged such action. Several lawmakers appearing on the Sunday talk shows underscored the argument frequently heard from the Obama administration - that arming the rebels carries a serious risk that lethal weaponry will end up in the hands of Qaeda sympathizers, and could possibly help them seize control of Syria. Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York and a member and former chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, expressed such fears, though he said the administration had improved its understanding of the powers holding sway in the rebel movement. "Hopefully, we've been looking at this very carefully and we have a better feel now, a better understanding of where the weapons would be going," Mr. King said on the CNN program "State of the Union." Until then, I'm very concerned that we could just replace one terrible dictator with a terrible ideological movement which is aimed at our destruction. Representative C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, defended Mr. Obama's cautious response to the evidence that Syria might have used chemical weapons and crossed the "red line" for United States intervention that Mr. Obama defined last year. "I think he understands that if we're going to be involved, that we have to make sure we have all the facts and all the information," Mr. Ruppersberger said on the CBS News program "Face the Nation." We can't be the sheriff for the whole world. Any American action in Syria should be carried out as part of a regional coalition, he said. But Representative Mike Rogers, Republican of Michigan who is chairman of the Intelligence Committee, argued that while the administration did not have a wealth of options, there was still much it could do short of putting "boots on the ground." He said the United States, in cooperation with partners in the Arab League, could help provide leadership, intelligence and training for the rebels. Such support, "which they're asking for, could be hugely helpful," he said on "Face the Nation." Mr. Rogers said that the United States could also enforce a no-fly zone over part of Syria without putting American pilots at risk through the use of "better technology" - presumably by providing batteries of surface-to-air missiles. "It's a game-changer," he said, "when airplanes and helicopters start falling out of the sky."