http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/?hp=McCain: U.S. military mission in Iraq 'ineffective'
By CAITLIN EMMA |
8/10/14 9:29 AM EDT
Sen. John McCain said Sunday the U.S. military mission in Iraq isn't an effective strategy and it doesn't go far enough.
The Arizona Republican, who is a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant make for a strategy that's too "narrow."
ISIL poses a threat to U.S. national security and an international terror threat, McCain said. And if he were in charge, he said he'd be rushing equipment to Irbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region. He would also be launching airstrikes not only in Iraq, but in Syria, he said, and would be offering training and equipment to the Kurds and giving assistance to the Free Syrian Army.
The U.S. military mission in Iraq builds on a history of foreign policy failure for President Barack Obama, McCain added. By withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq in the first place, Obama left a "vacuum of American leadership throughout the Middle East," McCain said.
"We're paying a price for that," he concluded.
