Republicans in the House and Senate on Thursday accused President Barack Obama of doing nothing to stop a new surge of terrorist activity that threatens to engulf Iraq, and reverse all the progress the U.S. made in the Iraq war.
GOP members spoke after several days of reports that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has become a military force that is taken over several cities in Iraq, and is now marching toward Baghdad. Reports from this week said ISIS has looted almost $500 million out of Mosul, which some say makes ISIS the richest terrorist organization in the world.
Thursday morning, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) accused Obama of napping while this has happened, and of ignoring the threat to Baghdad.
"It's not like we haven't seen this problem coming for over a year," Boehner told reporters. "And it's not like we haven't seen, over the last five or six months, these terrorists moving in, taking control of western Iraq.
"Now they've taken control of Mosul, they're 100 miles from Baghdad. And what's the president doing? Taking a nap."
Boehner spoke just minutes after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) delivered a fiery floor speech in which he said Obama needs to fire his entire national security team over new developments in Iraq. McCain said ISIS's takeover of Iraq poses a direct threat to the United States that has so far been ignored, and said the blame lies with Obama for deciding to pull out of Iraq without ensuring Iraq was in a position to defend itself.
In the House, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) slammed the Obama administration for failing to come up with any plan to deal with the rise of ISIS.
"The utter lack of urgency on the part of the administration with regard to ISIS's efforts to solidify its territorial gains is baffling at best, and inexcusable at worst," he said.
