Iraq

Floor Speech

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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