U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, “popped off” on the floor of the U.S. Senate on the war against ISIL in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris last week. The senator, known for his angry disposition was particularly annoyed as he lit into President Obama who he said was “impervious to new information.”
McCain stated, “According to the President, anyone who disagrees with him is just ‘popping off.’
McCain said that it was impossible “to look at where we are today and claim that the President’s strategy is succeeding – or that it is likely to succeed on anything approaching an acceptable timetable and level of risk. No one should take this as a criticism of our men and women in uniform, as well as their civilian counterparts in the field, who are doing the best they can under the strategic and operational constraints they face, especially the White House’s desire to micromanage the military campaign. It is not that we have done nothing against ISIL. It’s that there is no compelling reason to believe that anything we are doing will be sufficient to destroy ISIL.”
“What these attacks have demonstrated, and what should now be clear, is that ISIL is at war with us whether or not we admit we are at war with them. What should now be clear is that ISIL is determined to attack the heart of the civilized world, Europe and the United States—that it has the intent to attack us, the capability to attack us, and the sanctuary from which to plan those attacks. What should now be clear is that our people and our allies will not be safe until ISIL is destroyed – not just degraded, but destroyed; not eventually, but as soon as possible,” said McCain.
McCain then listed other who have “popped off:”
“I guess Michael Morell, former deputy director of the CIA under President Obama, was just ‘popping off’ in when he said recently, ‘the downing of the Russian airliner, only the third such attack in 25 years, and the attacks in Paris, the largest in Europe since the Madrid bombings in 2004, make it crystal clear that our ISIS strategy is not working.’
“I guess Senator Dianne Feinstein, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was just ‘popping off’ when she said that that ‘ISIL is not contained, ISIL is expanding’ … and that we need new ‘military strategy and tactics.’
“I guess General Jack Keane, architect of the successful surge strategy in Iraq, was just popping off when he said, “We are, in fact, losing this war. Moreover, I can say with certainty that this strategy will not defeat ISIS.”
“I guess Hillary Clinton, the President’s former Secretary of State and desired successor, was just ‘popping off’ when she declared her support for a no-fly zone in Syria to ‘stop the carnage on the ground and from the air.’
“I guess General David Petraeus was just ‘popping off’ when he testified to the Armed Services Committee that the President’s strategy has failed to create the military conditions to end the conflict in Syria, and that ISIL will not be defeated until we do so.
“And I guess James Jeffrey, a career Foreign Service Officer and the President’s Ambassador to Iraq, was just ‘popping off’ when he wrote in the Washington Post today that the President needs to send thousands of ground troops to destroy ISIL.
“What all of these national security leaders recognize is the reality that is staring us right in the face. It is the President who is once again failing to grasp it.” McCain continued, “He fails to understand, even now, that wars do not end just because he says they are over, that our terrorist enemies are not defeated just because he says they are, that the threat posed by ISIL is not contained just because he desires it to be so, and that maybe, just maybe, the growing group of his bipartisan critics might just be right.”