Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) has called on President Obama to provide immediate assistance to Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is battling Sunni extremists threatening to topple his government.
McConnell warned the gains made by the United States and a coalition of partners to transition Iraq from a dictatorship to a democracy, at the cost of more than 4,000 American lives and trillions of dollars, risk evaporating.
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He said if the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), an off shoot of al-Qaeda, takes over Iraq it would pose a “grave threat” to U.S. national security.
He stopped short of calling for the redeployment of American ground troops.
Obama rejected Maliki’s pleas for airstrikes last month, according to The New York Times, but opened the door to some kind of intervention in remarks Friday.
“We will not be sending U.S. troops back into combat in iraq but I have asked my national security team to prepare a range of other options that could help support Iraq security forces and I’ll be reviewing those options in the days ahead,” he said.
McConnell blames the fast-unraveling security situation in Iraq on Obama’s decision to withdraw troops without leaving a residual force to keep the peace.
Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/international/209391-mcconnell-to-obama-take-action-in-iraq
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