A House Democrat who served four tours in Iraq as a Marine said Tuesday that the lack of a long-term plan for the Middle East has already wasted the progress made in Iraq, and threatens to create more wasted effort in Afghanistan.
Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., didn’t explicitly criticize President Obama for failing to come up with a strategy for the Middle East and the fight against the Islamic State. But in an appearance on “Morning Joe,” Moulton did make it clear that the current administration is failing to put forward much of a plan.
“I went back to Iraq in February as a member of the Armed Services Committee, and it was disheartening to see so much of what we had fought for, and frankly achieved, just gone to waste because we didn’t have a political plan for the aftermath,” he said.
Obama has been criticized for years for pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq, which many say created a situation that allowed the Islamic State to flourish. Obama faced more criticism on Monday after giving a lackluster press conference in which many reporters asked how the U.S. will step up the fight against the terrorist group in the wake of the Paris attacks.
When asked if he was worried about Obama’s passive tone Monday, Moulton said he was worried that the U.S. did not appear to be taking more actions in response to Paris.
“I was just concerned that we’re not doing more,” he said. “I don’t think we have this long-term strategy. We’re not going to defeat ISIS just by killing their fighters on the ground. We’ve got to have a diplomatic and political plan.”
“And we’ve got to be clear to the troops that we send into combat what their long-term mission is. I don’t think we’ve made that clear,” he said.
Moulton also said he wants to be sure what happened in Iraq doesn’t happen again in Afghanistan, when U.S. troops leave that country.
“And I also want to hear a plan to make sure that we don’t repeat the same mistakes that we made coming out of Iraq as we come out of Afghanistan,” he said. “Because if we do that, and we create another political vacuum in the Middle East, just like we had before Sept. 11 … then we’ll be sending troops back into Afghanistan five years after we pulled them out, just like we’re doing today in Iraq.”
