Just 10 days ago, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C) complained that President Obama and his national security team aren’t talking enough about ISIS.
Just five days ago, Bill Kristol complained that President Obama and his national security team are talking about ISIS, but the rhetoric isn’t satisfactory.
And today, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) complained that President Obama and his national security team are talking about ISIS, and the rhetoric is satisfactory, but it’s still not good enough.
“Until President Obama articulates and implements a comprehensive strategy against ISIS across Iraq and Syria, we will continue to see more savage executions, more killing of religious minorities, more humanitarian disasters like Mount Sinjar, and more enslavement and abuse of women and girls,” Inhofe said on Saturday. “Obama talks a big game but his actions tell a different story.”
Inhofe, by the way, is the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The far-right senator went on to complain about “the president’s inaction” and “Obama’s failure to acknowledge the reality of the threat.”
It’s times like these when I wonder if Republicans are watching the same world events as everyone else.
As Rachel noted on the show the other day, the U.S. military has completed 93 separate airstrikes against ISIS targets, most of them in and around Mosul. What’s more, the Pentagon has completed more than 1,000 aerial sorties over Iraq in this mission to target ISIS. Most of them are surveillance flights, but nearly 100 of them have been airstrikes thus far.
All of this has come over course of two weeks — literally, just 14 days.
“Obama talks a big game but his actions tell a different story”? Which actions would those be? The 93 airstrikes against ISIS targets — without Congress so much as lifting finger on the issue — over the course of 14 days?
Do Republicans not realize these airstrikes have happened?
Given the circumstances, I get the sense we’re looking at a new litmus test imposed by the right: if Obama isn’t using military force in Syria, then he’s not really pursuing a realistic national security strategy.
Tell you what, Republicans. Pass a resolution authorizing the use of U.S. military force in Syria and then we can continue this conversation in earnest.
Recommended
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."