Inhofe: On Iraq, Obama Doing ‘Too Little, Too Late’
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 19, 2014
INHOFE: AFTER AMPLE WARNING, THE PRESIDENT IS DOING TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE IN IRAQ
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking member of Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), released the following statement after President Obama addressed the White House press corps on Iraq and after a closed-door SASC committee hearing on Iraq this afternoon:
“On Oct. 29, 2013, I sent a letter with Sens. Levin, McCain, Menendez, Corker, and Graham urging the President to increase intelligence sharing, security assistance, and counterterrorism support for Iraq. In January, Prime Minister Maliki asked for additional intelligence and airpower. Now today, nearly a week after ISIL took control of Mosul and Tikrit, President Obama finally decided he is ready to provide some of these means to Iraq, but once again, the President is doing too little, too late. The chaos we are seeing today is a result of the President’s failure to secure a Status of Forces Agreement in 2011 that would have enabled us to close the capability gaps of the Iraqi Security Forces that we see ISIL exploiting. Not surprisingly, the President’s speech today was light on leadership and failed to present a coherent strategy for Iraq and the broader Middle East that will address the chaos unfolding on his watch.
“The President also shared his plans to send up to 300 troops to “assess” how we should support Iraqi security forces. We already know what the Iraqi security forces need. Our Embassy in Baghdad is the largest in the world, and I have to ask what have they been doing all this time besides assessments? We have a three-star general on the ground who has been assessing what the Iraqis need. Either President Obama hasn’t been listening or he doesn’t trust his people on the ground. President Obama for some reason didn’t trust General Austin, commander of U.S. Central Command, when the President released the five of the worst Taliban leaders into Gen. Austin’s area of responsibility without consulting him in advance. President Obama ignored the advice of his commanders when he prematurely withdrew U.S. forces from Iraq in 2011. Why should we believe the President now that he is genuinely interested in the military’s assessment of the best way forward in Iraq?
“Further, the President’s belief that Iran can play a constructive role in Iraq is naïve at best and dangerous at worst. Iran is the largest state sponsor of terror in the region and remains committed to undermining U.S. national security. The longer President Obama fails to lead and his Administration’s policy of paralysis in the Middle East persists, the stronger Iran’s influence will become.”
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