Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., ripped the administration for its reluctance to take decisive action against the Islamic State, allowing it to grow into the threat the country faces today that has metastasized beyond Iraq and Syria.
“We had all the opportunity to actually unleash American air power in order to stop them in their tracks and they failed to do it,” McSally told the Washington Examiner’s Lisa Boothe. “When they finally — it appeared to be reluctantly — Obama started having some military action, it was this anemic approach of a small number of pinprick airstrikes that weren’t really going after the core capability and the core vulnerabilities that they have.”
McSally, a retired Air Force colonel, also slammed President Obama for missing many opportunities to take out the Islamic State’s headquarters and decimate their ability to hold ground, which helps in recruiting.
“It’s now almost two years later and we still have not fully stopped their resources. We still are doing very minimal going after their headquarters,” McSally said. “We’ve averaged about six strike sorties a day in Syria. This is no way to engage in military operations in order to defeat an enemy.”
