Two Senate committees have called snap hearings for Wednesday to put President Obama’s Islamic State policy under the microscope as Russia entrenches itself in Syria and hundreds of thousands of refugees flee that country’s four-year old civil war.
The president has avoided taking an active approach in Syria, where critics and even some of his former advisers say his policies are ineffective. This has infuriated Republicans, who have been complaining for months that the extremist group has gained ground due to the administration’s low-key stance.
Their concerns have been bolstered by a Pentagon inspector general’s probe into allegations that the administration pressured intelligence analysts to skew data to make the Islamic State and its allies seem weaker in their reports.
The probe is expected to be a highlight of Wednesday morning’s hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which has summoned Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East and South Asia, to appear. It’s focused on the intelligence operation at Central Command, which Austin leads.
Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., has slammed what he sees as a weak response from the administration to Russia’s military buildup in Syria over the past few weeks. The Russian military is supplying the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and is building an air base at the regime stronghold of Latakia, to go with Moscow’s existing naval facility at Tartus.
“Russia’s doubling down on the murderous Assad regime is yet another example of how this administration’s feckless foreign policy has emboldened our adversaries and diminished our standing in the world,” he said.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will examine the issue from the perspective of experts, including Kimberly Kagan, head of the Institute for the Study of War think tank, which issued a report in May saying the extremist group could not be defeated without U.S. ground combat troops. That’s something the administration refuses to order and Democrats in Congress won’t support.
The Islamic State has proven resistant to a year-long aerial bombing campaign by the U.S.-led coalition. Meanwhile, the U.S.-trained Iraqi army has been unable to retake the key provincial capital of Ramadi, whose fall to the militants four months ago sparked a round of congressional criticism at the time.
But Syria is the epicenter of criticism over the administration’s policy. Not only has the Islamic State gained ground there, but the highly-touted program to train a moderate rebel force to counter it has turned up unimpressive results.
The refugee crisis erupted as Obama focused on securing his nuclear deal with Iran, Assad’s other major international patron. U.S. diplomacy fell behind efforts by Moscow and Tehran to put their own stamp on a solution for Syria while the administration kept its hands off Assad to hold their support for the nuclear pact.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest admitted Monday that the administration’s four-year-long effort to get rid of Assad by diplomatic means “has not gained a lot of traction.”
