U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) joined a group of Senate Republicans on Tuesday in calling on President Barack Obama to pursue additional military options as a means of degrading and destroying ISIS abroad and protecting U.S. citizens from attacks at home.
“The American people are understandably concerned in the aftermath of the horrific attack in San Bernardino and increasingly apprehensive about the prospect of another terrorist attack on American soil,” the senators wrote. “We believe we are at a strategic inflection point in the fight against ISIS and that, without a well-informed strategy change to arrest this group’s momentum, the task of defeating it will multiply in its difficulty and complexity. We listened carefully to your Oval Office address on Sunday but were disappointed to learn that the same ineffective approach will continue to be implemented.”
The letter, which warns that the magnitude of the threat of ISIS continues to grow as it expands its reach, was, in addition to Roberts, signed by Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), David Perdue (R-GA), Jim Risch (R-ID), Mike Rounds (R-SD), John Thune (R-SD), Thom Tillis (R-NC) and David Vitter (R-LA).
The senators’ letter said that ISIS is a direct threat to the U.S. and must be mitigated.
“The recent attacks prove that ISIS now has the ability to carry out mass-casualty terrorist attacks well beyond its self-proclaimed ‘caliphate’ in Syria and Iraq,” the letter said. “The director of the Central Intelligence Agency recently warned that ISIS likely has additional attacks planned, and the group has publicly declared its intention to strike the mainland United States. We also know that ISIS is aggressively pursuing a more robust chemical weapons capability and, to that end, has recruited scientists and other technical experts.
“In order to effectively undermine the ISIS narrative, the coalition must inflict upon it highly visible territorial losses, starting with Iraq, including the recapture of Ramadi, Fallujah, and Mosul. To that end, we recommend that you pursue, at a minimum, several additional military options.“
The letter’s proposed options include embedding U.S. military advisors to aid Iraqi Security Forces, the Kurdish Peshmerga and Sunni tribal forces, and the deployment and embedding of additional U.S. troops to serve as Joint Terminal Attack Controllers to ensure that airstrikes are more precise. The letter also says that the current coalition airstrike approval process should be reviewed as it contains too many barriers to timely and strategic striking.
“Success will not come easily or cheaply, but we urge you as our commander-in-chief to do whatever it takes to defeat ISIS and keep the American citizenry safe from harm,” the letter said.