"How much more brutal do they have to be before this president
understands this is a serious, long-term threat and brings us
authorization force, puts behind that authorization of force the
muscle it takes to actually win this war?" Brady asked. "I don't
know what more we need to understand the seriousness of this
terrorist threat."
Upon seeing a video of the burning death of pilot Muath
al-Kasaesbeh, captured in December when his F-16 crashed over
northeastern Syria,
Jordan swiftly hanged female militant Sajida
al-Rishawi and senior al-Qaida prisoner Ziyad Karboli. In 2005,
al-Rishawi was sentenced to death for her a role in a suicide bomb
attack in Amman. Karboli was sentenced to death three years later.
Brady characterized Obama's approach to combating terrorism as
"confusing."
"I hope he does reassess his past leadership, if that's what it can
be called," Brady said. "It is confusing frankly to Congress, to our
allies. It's created openings, unfortunately, among those who oppose
this.
"We're ready to support this president, our military men and women,
with whatever it takes to execute a strategy," he added, noting that
the House has
"muscled up" defense funding to fight the
rapidly growing Islamic terror threat gripping the world.
"We're convinced there needs to be an authorization of force and the
ability to use the ground forces when needed to actually win this
war," Brady said. "I just don't think you can do it from 30,000
feet. Yeah, we had some good success in Kobani here over the last
several weeks, that's good. I don't think that's going to last
without a firm commitment from the U.S. that we're in this."
Vallely, a retired general, advocates air-ground operations and said
he has more faith in Jordan's King Abdullah than Obama to
aggressively push forward.
"What they're planning on now at that joint terrorist center in
Jordan is the next phase and that's to target the ISIS locations in
eastern Syria and in Iraq, or what we call the Badlands that is
controlled by ISIS now," Vallely said.
"We should bring in B-52s, we should bring in the A-10s, we should
support King Abdullah, who will take the initiative to do what we
call joint air-ground operations in those Badlands. I can see that
happening sometime within the next 48 hours, but that's the
offensive action that needs to be taken over there and King Abdullah
will take the initiative to do that and again you'll see Obama lead
from behind."
The current situation is especially concerning for Israel because
the Jewish state shares a border with Jordan, he added.
"So I would say, if we can put together a coalition or joint force
of Israelis, Jordanians and Americans, we can take out and
completely destroy ISIS on the ground over there."
Harvey, a retired special intelligence officer, laid out a detailed
strategy: "a no-fly zone, deep strike capabilities … soft on the
ground … about 8,000 to 10,000 combined Joint Task Force set up in
Iraq to coordinate and allow the reach that is needed for these
precision strikes in combination with our air power."
"Our commitment, our leadership is really required," Harvey said.
"Jordan doesn't have the means and capability to do it themselves,
although they have great insights and connections to tribes in
southern Syria and western Iraq."
Harvey doesn't have high hopes for Obama and his administration's
response.
"The administration is just going to paper this over," he said.
"It's a political game for them. They're going to announce some
things, have some activity, and they want it to go back to normal.
"Their major objective is an Iranian nuclear deal and they're
cozying up to Iran in both Syria and Iraq, and it is counter to our
overall objectives in the region. It impacts our allies in Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and in Israel."
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