Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, said Monday that many lawmakers are willing to support a greater U.S. involvement in the fight against the Islamic State, but only if the administration comes up with a clear strategy.
“The real reluctance members of Congress have is many of us are willing to support greater action, but we want to see a strategy, an approach that can lead us somewhere rather than incremental, too late, trying to catch up kind of activity,” the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said at the Defense One Summit.
While the war against the Islamic State has stretched on for more than a year, Congress has yet to pass an authorization for the use of military force specific to the conflict. The administration is operating under previous authorizations for force in Iraq and against al Qaeda, something many say is a legal stretch.
Thornberry said Congress hasn’t voted yet partly because it’s unclear what the real world consequences would be if an authorization failed and because the White House has yet to provide a clear strategy that could lead to success.
“You want me to vote to send troops to possibly die and yet you’re not giving me a strategy on their mission. So why should I do that?” he said.
Asked if Congress has abdicated its power to declare war by not even voting on an Islamic State-specific authorization for the use of military force, Thornberry simply said “yes.”
Thornberry also stressed that a strategy must come from the commander in chief, not each of the 535 members of Congress. But President Obama sent a request for a war authorization to the Hill earlier this month that Congress never took up for a vote.
He said incremental actions taken by the administration, like last week’s announcement that 50 U.S. special operators would deploy to Syria, are “behind events” and quickly changing conditions on the ground make it more and more difficult to see a path to success. For example, Thornberry said the U.S. having an impact in Syria would have been easier before the Russians got involved and began flying airstrikes to support Syrian President Bashar Assad.
“As time goes on and this morass gets murkier and murkier, there are fewer and fewer good options,” he said.
