America must be more aggressive in the fight against the Islamic State following a weekend of violence at home, according to the leader of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., said on Monday that several attacks over the weekend, from the bombing in New York to two separate incidents in New Jersey to a stabbing in Minnesota, show the need for America to take more of a leadership role in defeating the Islamic State.
“I’ve talked to high administration officials who do confide and say, ‘Listen, if we did this, if we actually led, we could take out ISIS in two months.’ And we haven’t done it,” Johnson said on CNN.
“Who else is going to do it? We’ve been sitting here for two years, we have not defeated ISIS and here, again, we’re sitting here on a Monday morning and we’ve seen pipe bombs and pressure cooker bombers and a stabbing in St. Cloud. Aren’t you getting sick of it?”
The way to show leadership, according to Johnson, is to establish a coalition of worldwide leaders working to stamp out the Islamic State, much like former President George H.W. Bush did during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Instead of taking out the beehive of Islamic terrorism, Johnson said President Obama is “poking the hive with a stick,” driving the bees out but not killing them.
The weekend saw several attacks around the United States, including a bomb in Chelsea, N.Y., that wounded 29 people and a stabbing that injured nine people in St. Cloud, Minn. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., commended local law enforcement for their response to the Chelsea explosion, as well as their hard work in preventing other attacks.
“This is the first successful attack in New York since 9/11. We owe it to our law enforcement professionals that it has taken 15 years. In that time, there have been numerous thwarted attacks, include the smoking car in Times Square,” Maloney said in a statement.
The weekend also included the discovery of five improvised explosive devices in a train station in Elizabeth, N.J., and an explosion in a trash can near a Marine Corps charity run in Seaside Park, N.J.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, echoed the call for a change in the campaign against the Islamic State following the attacks, saying that Americans “cannot wait any longer for a comprehensive strategy to be defined.”
“As we watch ISIS spread from the Middle East and around the globe to places in South America and Southeast Asia, I will continue to call for a global and comprehensive approach to defeating ISIS,” she said. “We must act now to engage our allies, such as the Kurdish Peshmerga; correctly utilize special operations forces, and encourage Congress to debate the use of force in Syria through a new [authorization for the use of military force], as well as end sequestration so our military has the tools necessary to defeat ISIS.”
Intelligence officials have said that destroying the caliphate the Islamic State controls in Iraq and Syria could force the group to continue its cause by carrying out attacks around the world, rather than in the Middle East.
Johnson also said that the process of getting information to Congress via official channels is slower-moving than the news cycle, saying that he doesn’t have any information on the attacks beyond what’s already been reported.
There are several events around Washington this week looking at protection of the U.S. homeland. Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, speaks Tuesday afternoon at the American Enterprise Institute. His committee holds a hearing the next day where local law enforcement officials will testify on how to stop attacks in the U.S.
