Congressional Republicans in the United States (U.S.) are broadly in favour of military action in the region, but several have criticised the President’s strategy, saying it does not go far enough.
The senator and former Republican presidential nominee John McCain said the U.S. should conduct strikes not only against ISIS in Iraq, but also against the group’s strongholds in neighbouring Syria. “This is turning into – as we predicted for a long time – a regional conflict which does pose a threat to the security of the United States of America,” Mr McCain told CNN, describing the Obama administration’s response to the crisis as “very, very ineffective, to say the least”.
The Republican congressman Peter King called Mr Obama “weak” for relying on air strikes conducted by warplanes and drones while refusing to send U.S. ground troops into the region. Appearing on NBC’s Meet The Press, Mr King said: “We should take nothing off the table.”
The South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham told Fox News he feared ISIS-inspired attacks on U.S. soil. “If [Mr Obama] does not go on the offensive against ISIS, ISIL, whatever you guys want to call it, they are coming here,” Mr Graham said. “And if we do get attacked, then he will have committed a blunder for the ages.”
A Wall Street Journal-NBC poll found last week that 60 per cent of Americans disapprove of the President’s handling of foreign policy, while a July survey by Pew found that 55 per cent felt the U.S. had no responsibility to tackle the violence in Iraq.
