In August, I participated in a trip to the Middle East led by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, R-Calif. While there we met with several heads of state, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Prime Minister Netanyahu leads a country surrounded by enemies and is constantly under the real threat of violent terrorism. When he articulates his country’s policy and actions against this threat, he is clear, firm and convincing. You can agree or disagree with him, but there is no denying his leadership.
Upon returning from the Middle East, we were almost immediately asked by President Obama to include congressional authorization in the Continuing Resolution for the training and equipping of “moderate Syrian rebels” to fight the terrorist group known as the Islamic State. Simultaneous with the president’s address to the nation where he made the request to us public, we were provided by the White House with a brief fact sheet summarizing the president’s strategy against the Islamic State and the following week were given several briefings, both classified and unclassified.
