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Last week, President Barack Obama addressed the nation and offered his plan for combating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). During his speech, the president asked Congress to authorize training of Syrian rebels and recommended further air strikes in the region for diffusing the threat of this dangerous enemy.
The Wire - Russell Berman
The House will only vote on a formal resolution authorizing the use of military force against the Islamic State if President Obama makes a direct request for congressional action.
That's the message the new majority leader, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), has been delivering privately to lawmakers in recent days, according to aides familiar with his thinking.
In addition to the growing threat of terrorism due to ISIS influence in Iraq and Syria, there is another volatile situation that must be watched along the Gaza strip. Like ISIS, Hamas is a Sunni Islamist party that has shown its disregard for human life and sole intention to do harm. This has taken form through numerous unprovoked and unwarranted rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas, sometimes despite supposed ceasefire agreements, and use of its own civilians as human shields.
Last week, the world was horrified when we learned that American journalist, James Foley, was brutally murdered in cold blood by ISIS extremists. But this wasn’t the first instance of violence by these terrorists, nor is it likely to be the last if they are not stopped.
Tulsa World - Randy Krehbiel
President Barack Obama should ask Congress for authority to expand U.S. intervention in Iraq, and Congress should give it to him, 4th District Congressman Tom Cole said Friday in Tulsa.
“The president can claim, and a lot of people will want him to do this, that he can act under the 2002 authorization,” said Cole. “There’s a legal argument for that, but I don’t think there’s a good political argument for it.”
The Oklahoman - By Rick Green
Dangers have increased around the globe at a time when U.S. military forces are smaller and less capable of dealing with trouble overseas, Rep. Tom Cole told The Oklahoman’s editorial board.
“In my time in Congress, and I’ve sat on the Armed Services Committee or Defense Appropriations almost every year I’ve been there, I have never seen a more complex and dangerous international environment than we have today,” he said Thursday.
Ever since Russia violated Ukrainian sovereignty by sending troops to invade Crimea back in March, the world has been clearly warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin is on the move to conquer and claim neighboring territory. While he started with making Crimea part of Russia, professing that he must do so as protector of the “Russian world,” clearly his goal is to take over huge swaths of the country of Ukraine and then threaten the sovereignty of other countries allied or associated with America.