Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday urged House Republicans to avoid the drift toward isolationism that has gripped some elements of the GOP even in the midst of the rise of the Islamic State.
Cheney was critical of President Obama, telling a closed-door meeting of the House majority that the president’s failed policies in the Middle East helped facilitate the expansion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and fuel other crises in the region and around the world. He questioned whether Obama would lay out a strategy capable of defeating ISIS and addressing other problems when he addresses the nation on Wednesday.
But Republicans who emerged from the session said Cheney delivered a subtle message to them as well: Isolationism and a lighter U.S. footprint around the globe, supported by the GOP’s small but until-now influential libertarian wing, leads to problems like ISIS. The former vice president urged Republicans to re-affirm their support for strong military and intelligence-gathering capabilities and to maintain its historic internationalist approach to foreign affairs.
Cheney, said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., “reiterated for us the importance of the Republican Party standing strong for a strong national defense. It was a great message, something we needed to hear. Hopefully it sticks with a lot of my colleagues who have kind of had this creep toward isolationism in the Congress lately.”
Cheney was a special guest of the National Republican Congressional Committee, invited back in mid-August, before ISIS became an issue Congress would be called on to address during September’s brief work period. The conference meeting was held at the Capitol Hill Club, not in the Capitol, so that GOP leaders could discuss fundraising and other political matters.
But Cheney’s appearance ultimately coincided with an issue he has focused on since leaving office in 2009 — the global terrorist threat — and it came at a time when voters are demanding that Obama step up his response to ISIS.
Sources who were in attendance in the meeting said the mood among members was sober as Cheney discussed topics ranging from ISIS to the Muslim Brotherhood, another Islamic extremist organization, and the fact that U.S. allies in the region don’t trust Obama to follow through on his promises.
Cheney, who has never disavowed his support for the since-unpopular Iraq launched under President George W. Bush, talked “about how unprepared the U.S. military is for any kind of medium- or large-scale engagement against ISIS because the administration is cutting the military so much,” according to a source who was present for the discussion.
House Republicans said Cheney did not recommend that they embrace any specific policies in response to ISIS or other threats. “He didn’t come up with any specific action, just kind of laid out the dangers we have and that we need to meet them,” said Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb.
