[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Page 19574]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  PRESIDENTIAL STRATEGY TO DEFEAT ISIL

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, last evening President Obama 
addressed the Nation concerning the threat ISIL poses to our people. 
Unfortunately, the American people did not hear of a strategy or a plan 
to defeat and destroy this terrorist army. Instead, they heard a 
restatement of a military campaign crafted to contain--contain--ISIL 
within Iraq and Syria.
  Following the attacks in Paris and California, and the downing of a 
Russian airliner, about 60 percent of the American people disapprove of 
the President's handling of terrorism. Nearly two-thirds disapprove of 
his handling of ISIL.
  The American people understand intuitively that ISIL and the wider 
terrorist threat have not been contained but, rather, that they have 
evolved into something increasingly more serious and more challenging. 
Americans also know that the operational concept ordered by the 
President is insufficient to defeat ISIL. It is not just the American 
people saying this. It is not just Republicans saying it, either. 
President Obama's last Defense Secretary recently criticized his 
approach; so have several other former Obama administration officials.
  Here is a sampling of what they have said over just the last week or 
two: One called on the Obama administration to ``wake up'' to the 
threat. Another said that the Obama administration ``seems to be really 
flailing and tone deaf to this latest challenge.'' A third called on 
the President to ``change your strategy'' because ``by any measure, our 
strategy in Iraq and Syria is not succeeding.'' And then there is 
President Obama's former Secretary of State, Secretary Clinton, who put 
it plainly: ``We're not winning.'' Hillary Clinton said: ``We're not 
winning.''
  The President had a real opportunity last night to show the American 
people that defeating ISIL is his priority. He had an opportunity to 
demonstrate his willingness to adapt to the threat. He had an 
opportunity to explain how he can better prepare our Nation for a fight 
that will inevitably be passed on to his successor, but he didn't do 
that. He didn't do it last night.
  The American people were looking for a serious strategy and a real 
vision last night, not a recap of an approach that clearly hasn't 
worked. Last night was only the President's third Oval Office address, 
and by any measure a missed opportunity.
  Look, throughout his time as Commander in Chief, President Obama has 
shown an inflexible adherence to policies he advocated as a candidate 
for office in 2008, most specifically to end our Nation's War on 
Terror. In his first days in office he issued a series of Executive 
orders designed to weaken the ability of our warfighter and 
intelligence community to gather targeted information, to capture 
terrorists, interrogate, and detain them to advance our understanding 
of terrorist networks and plans, as well as to protect the American 
people. Although the President conceded that the complete withdrawal of 
our forces from Afghanistan would be harmful to our national security 
interests and slowed our withdrawal in the face of Al Qaeda and Taliban 
resistance, he inflexibly clung to a fixed date for our drawdown of 
forces in Iraq, which allowed for the growth of ISIL. As the President 
inflexibly pursued an end to the War on Terror, the terrorist threat 
evolved and adapted as Al Qaeda affiliates advanced in presence and 
capability and Al Qaeda in Iraq grew into the terrorist army we now 
know as ISIL. ISIL's use of social media and encrypted communications 
burgeoned at the very moment the President and his allies were working 
to take away critical electronic surveillance tools from our 
intelligence community.
  Here is what we need from the President now. What we need from the 
President is for him to clearly outline what it is he aims to achieve, 
how he aims to achieve it, and what authorities he thinks he will need 
to make that happen. He needs to match strategic objectives to the 
means to reach the goals. The President needs to tell us what 
authorities he needs to defeat encrypted online communications. The 
President needs to tell us what is needed to establish our capture, 
interrogation, and surveillance capabilities. The President needs to 
tell us how the coalition or NATO will forge a ground force capable of 
not only trying to contain ISIL but actually driving it from Raqqa. The 
President needs to tell us the force structure and the funding our 
commanders will need to rebuild our conventional capabilities so we can 
continue and expand this fight while facing other global threats. The 
President should also explain why he will not use the secure facility 
at Guantanamo Bay to safely hold and interrogate newly captured 
terrorists in order to help prevent the next plot against Americans.
  These are the kinds of things the American people are looking for, 
and by leading on them, President Obama can demonstrate his commitment 
to protecting our Nation and leaving it better prepared for his 
successor.

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