Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, on Monday, our Commander in Chief admitted that, in the fight against the Islamic State, the U.S. does not have ``a complete strategy.'' It is hard to believe that it has been 1 year since the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria--ISIS, ISIL, or whatever you want to call them--began making headlines in American newspapers. It is hard to believe that it has been nearly 1\1/2\ years since the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that it was ``likely ISIL will attempt to take territory in Iraq and Syria.'' But it goes back even farther. In January 2014, the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq said the Islamic State is ``capable of taking and holding ground and causing a lot of trouble.'' In November 2013, a State Department official testified before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee and specifically cited the ineffectiveness of Iraq's military. Then Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq and Iran said: ``ISIL has benefited from a permissive operating environment due to inherent weaknesses of Iraqi security forces.'' Mr. Speaker, all of these warnings occurred after Iraq's Prime Minister made an appeal to President Obama to help defeat the growing threat to his country. That was 2 years ago; so here we are. In June 2015, the leader of the free world tells an international conference in Austria that the United States does not have a complete strategy to defeat an enemy he once called a JV squad.…”