Ted Poe: “On September 10, 2014, President Obama announced that the United States would ``degrade and ultimately destroy'' ISIS.…”

“On September 10, 2014, President Obama announced that the United States would ``degrade and ultimately destroy'' ISIS. ISIS has obviously not gotten the memo. This terrorist group keeps moving across the Middle East, killing those who stand in its way by raping, pillaging, and murdering those who disagree with them. ISIS controls half of Syria and large parts of Iraq. Civilized society is losing to these barbarians. Despite the U.S. spending billions on a counterterrorism strategy, the terrorist group's numbers have not decreased. In fact, ISIS has grown in size, with affiliates all over the world, including Indonesia, Yemen, Egypt, and even Libya. A $3 billion U.S. airstrike campaign has been plagued with little measurable successful results. From the very beginning, military officials warned that airstrikes alone that relied on virtually no human intelligence or on-the-ground intelligence would not be successful. Without good intelligence, the number of airstrikes the U.S. has carried out have been few, and the results are uncertain. Also, ISIS fighters killed by our airstrikes are just replaced by other jihadists. Our intelligence estimates that ISIS' numbers are the same as they were when our airstrikes began. In addition, the administration's $500 million train and equip program has proved to be a failure by anyone's measure. In July, officials reported they had identified 7,000 planned participants but only trained 60 of these mercenaries.…”