0 senate floor after the government said syria killed its own people using chemical weapons. >> i that president for acknowledging that the syrians are using chemical weapons and massacring their own people and i applaud his decision to provide additional weapons. i do not -- every ounce, every bone in my body knows that simply providing weapons will not change the battlefield equation and we must change the battlefield equation. martha: we are glad to be joined by senator john mccain, ranking member of the armed services committee. he traveled to syria in secret and met with the rebel fighters and knows quit a bit about what's going on on the ground. so you believe that providing weapons -- the white house has not defined what the scale and scope of their involvement intentions are. what do you think needs to be done here? what would satisfy you? >> i think we have to view this situation in the context of a terribly deteriorating situation in the region. jordan is overrun with refugees. the fighting is 93,000 people have been massacred. horrible atrocities are taking place and the russians are providing sophisticated weapons such as missiles and airplanes. hezbollah sent thousands of fighters. the iranians have boots on the ground and are supplying weapons. so it's a totally unfair and unbalanced fight. now the rebels are the freedom fighters, the syrian national farmy are being beaten every place around syria because of the overwhelming fire power and air power. and air power is the deciding factor. you have got to take their air power out of it. you have got to have a safe zone where they can operate, train and equip. and we have to turn this thing around. anything less than that will be countered with increased russian and iranian assistance and more hezbollah fighters into the region. we have to change the battlefield situation. and just sending arms -- though they need them very body. it's not going to change the situation on the ground and the massacre goes on. martha: hindsight is always 20-20. but a lot of people would feel if we had done this sooner and i know you advocated doing it sooner that it would have been a clearer ally situation. is it too late and if we go in now it sounds like we are in deep from what you are saying if we can hope to achieve the goal and also tell us what is the ultimate goal here. >> our ultimate goal is to remove bashar al-asaad which the president articulated many times. will it be complicated, difficult and a mess? chemical weapons cache's will have to be secured. every day that goes by and we don't get rid of bashar al-asaad it becomes more difficult. but for to us sit by and watch these people being massacred, raped, tortured in the most terrible fashion. meanwhile the russians are all-in, hezbollah is all-in, and we are talking about giving them more light weapons? it's insane. it's turning into a regional conflict. not just a conflict within syria and the united states sat by and the president of the of the in syria. great britain has said we are not sure we are in at this point. >> the british want in and they stated it, everything but openly. the french want in. they long ago said it was clear that bashar al-asaad used chemical weapons. we determined bashar al-asaad killed about 100-150 people with chemical weapons. how did he kill the other 93,000? what the president did was he gave them a red line but gave them a green light to do everything else. if i sound emotional about this it's because the news out of that country is horrific. and it is about to destabilize and maybe even overthrow the government of jordan. it's about to cause lebanon to become a cockpit of sectarian violence and we have sat there and done nothing. martha: i hope you will come back. i want to talk to you about the reaction of the american people to all this and how you do all this without ending up with boots on the ground. >> bosnia and kosovo are examples and the president has to explain it to the american people. martha: we'll talk to you soon. bill: third year for that civil war. 93,000 have been killed. some say the real number is much larger than that. 1.4 million have fled the country and the pace of the exodus is accelerating. last summer the insurgency had grown to 140,000 people. when he talks about the region, everybody has a hand in this. there are so many different forces at work to try and figure out for themselves how they can influence the outcome. martha: trying to nudge a regime in syria. we are just getting started. we have got a lot on the plate. watch this first. it's dark and chaotic. but you are watching more than 100 people after that event were rushed to the hospital after a sports bar deck collapsed. bill: new questions about the extent of government surveillance and what this means for you. >> we don't have proof there are other orders. i doubt the orders have been directed to one cell phone company. my you significant is every cell phone in america is having their data tracked. bill: we'll ask tom ridge is any of that is making americans safer.