[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 10139]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAQ

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the world is learning of the profound 
challenge facing our Nation as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant 
sweeps across Iraq. We hear the names of former battlefields in Iraq 
and remember the hard-fought gains in places such as Fallujah and Al 
Qaim and Ramadi.
  Just as many Members had not heard of Al Qaeda in the Arabian 
Peninsula before a terrorist attempted to detonate an explosive device 
on an airliner over Detroit in 2009, they are now learning of ISIL, a 
vicious terrorist organization that operates across portions of Syria 
and Iraq. Like AQAP, ISIL consists of an insurgency that threatens 
stability in the region where it trains and fights, and that presents a 
terrorist threat to the United States.
  The Iraqi security forces that were cowed in the face of ISIL 
advances are now less capable than when the President withdrew the 
entirety of our force without successfully negotiating a capable 
remaining U.S. presence. Such a force would have preserved the gains 
made on the ground by mentoring our partners and assisting with command 
and control and intelligence sharing. Now we must grapple with how best 
to help Iraq meet this threat.
  ISIL is a lethal, violent terrorist force, and its activities in 
Syria and Iraq represent a grave threat to U.S. interests. The 
administration must act quickly to provide assistance to the Maliki 
government before every gain made by the U.S. and allied troops is lost 
and before ISIL expands its sanctuary from which it can eventually 
threaten the United States.
  Several weeks ago the President spoke at West Point, and in that 
speech he vaguely described a new counterterrorism strategy that he 
said ``matches this diffuse threat'' by ``expand[ing] our reach without 
sending forces that stretch our military too thin, or [that] stir up 
local resentments.'' He said that ``we need partners to fight 
terrorists alongside of us.''
  The President must quickly provide us with a strategy and plan that 
address the threat posed by the insurgency and the terrorist 
capabilities of ISIL, and he must explain that new strategy.

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