President Obama’s war plan against the Islamic State (ISIL) was openly mocked by a member of his own party during a congressional hearing focused on Middle East policy
Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) took Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter to task over testimony the Pentagon chief had provided to the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, outlining a nine-point plan to defeat ISIL in the Middle East.
“In the nine lines of effort that comprise our strategy, the first one you cited was political,” O’Rourke noted, referring to the Defense Secretary’s claim that building up governance in Iraq was the administration’s “first and most critical” objective.
“We’ve been in in Iraq in one form or another since 2003, invested tens of billions of dollars to assist in building governance, trained and equipped an army that melted in the face of the enemy,” O’Rourke said.
“I have some serious reservations about the potential to achieve success on this first line of effort,” he added, before moving on to another strategy bullet point focused on building up a capable ground force in Iraq and Syria to counter ISIL.
O’Rourke reminded the secretary that Congress had budgeted for the Pentagon enough to train and equip 24,000 fighters to bolster Iraqi security forces. Yet, so far, only 7,000 soldiers have been recruited.
“Is this a serious proposal?” O’Rourke asked incredulously. “Is this a serious line of effort that we can seriously expect to succeed?” he pressed the defense chief.
“Well, it’s a serious effort,” Carter responded.
Earlier in the hearing, Carter acknowledged that “it turns out to be very hard to identify” potential recruits who are both capable of achieving US goals in the fight, and are not affiliated with the Islamic State.
He told O’Rourke, however, that the department is working on filling that recruitment gap–a promise that didn’t leave the Texas Congressman satisfied. O’Rourke ended his line of questioning imploring Secretary Carter to go back to the drawing board.
“I hope there is a Plan B from the administration,” O’Rourke said, yielding his time back to the committee chairman.
Also testifying at the hearing on Wednesday was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, who was making one of his final appearances on Capitol Hill before retiring from the service.
