Friday, February 13, 2015

Blog #2: Obama to Congress


President Obama sent an open letter to congress about the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.  Obama cited the four Americans taken hostage and executed by the Islamic State with the last being Kayla Mueller.  President Obama used these executions as a threat to American soil and those Americans abroad. President Obama called for airstrikes of Islamic State targets. Obama insisted that ground combat with the Islamic State should be the responsibility of the surrounding nations.  President Obama does not necessarily need approval by congress for the airstrikes on the Islamic State but vows for a bipartisan agreement on the issue.  President Obama would be open to specialized ground missions such as those involving rescue.  President Obama is searching through policies with a fine toothcomb to make sure the mistakes of 2001 do not get repeated.  President Obama plans to work with congress to propose legislation specifically focused on defeating the Islamic State. The legislation would have a three year window in which afterwards would have to be renewed. Democrats and Republicans are on two opposing ends of the war spectrum. Democrats were not happy that the president left open the possibility of deployment while Republicans felt Obama had to many limits and should be open to ground combat to fight the Islamic State. Most of the skepticism is surrounded by the unwillingness to get back into a major war. Some Lawmakers just want to make sure there are no loopholes that can be exploited after the voting.  This would be the first ask of approval to physically fight the Islamic State.





Christopher Eakes
02/13/2015
4:48 PM

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