Political Quotes

“We began Operation Inherent Resolve, which is a war against ISIS, on August 7, 2014. President Obama announced at the time that we were engaging in targeted airstrikes against ISIS because of their advance toward Erbil. There is a U.S. consulate in Erbil, and so that was part of the President's inherent powers to defend the Nation-- to protect our consulate. Within a very few weeks, we had completely protected American interests, and President Obama said now is the time to go on offense against ISIS. The President appeared before the American public in a televised speech the evening of September 10, 2014, and said that we had taken care of the imminent threat to the United States but now we needed to go into an offensive war to ``degrade and ultimately destroy the Islamic state.'' And that description of what the mission is has now been broadened, in the words of current Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, to focus on ISIS's lasting defeat. Since the war against ISIS began in August 2014, more than 5,000 members of the U.S. military have served in Operation Inherent Resolve either in Iraq or Syria. Right now, just as an example, from my home State, there is a carrier, the USS Eisenhower--homeported in Norfolk-- that is in the gulf now as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. The U.S. military has launched over 12,600 airstrikes. We are carrying out special forces operations.…”