Marco Rubio and Bob Casey Take on Bashar al-Assad

From his perch on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio reached out across the aisle to U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, Jr., D-Pa., to introduce a resolution calling for Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad to step down and for the Obama administration to help efforts to bring democracy to that nation.

The Syrian people can't expect Assad to heed calls for his departure, nor can they rely on the United Nations to act, Rubio said on Friday. For the sake of innocent lives in Syria and the security of the entire region, the United States must keep up the pressure on the regime and begin planning for a post-Assad Syria. We need to hasten Assads departure from power and also lay the groundwork for the difficult path toward a true inclusive democracy.

"Bashar al-Assad is responsible for killing at least 6,000 Syrian men, women and children, Casey, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs, insisted. The regime's brutal violence has torn the country apart, and threatens to destabilize the entire region. The international community can and should do more to support the people of Syria during this terrible hour in their history.