Arkansans in Congress say clock ticking on Iraq

WASHINGTON --Members of Arkansas' congressional delegation said Friday that the United States needs to move quickly to deal with the militant group that is taking over parts of Iraq.

U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., said it is "unacceptable" that militants with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (an alternate name for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) have captured one of the Iraqi cities where he was stationed with the Army Judge Advocate General's Corps.

"The fall of Mosul has grabbed my attention even more than if it was someplace else," the Army Reserve lieutenant colonel said. "I think the military base that I was on has been overrun by terrorists and looted by terrorists. We should all pay attention; this is not a situation where we can say, 'This is their problem, not ours.'"

Griffin served in Mosul from May 2006 to August 2006, alongside the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, according to his official House biography.

The United States shouldn't have pulled out of Iraq so fully, he said, adding that if the militant group takes control of the country, it will have a base from which to launch attacks against others.

"That region is one where instability has been a permanent part of the landscape, and the last thing we need is a chaotic and more unstable Iraq," he said.

U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a former Army captain who led an infantry platoon with the 101st Airborne in daily combat patrols while he was deployed in Iraq, said President Barack Obama needs to address the issue quickly.

"As a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, I am deeply concerned with the rapidly deteriorating situation in Iraq. More alarming is President Obama's lack of a comprehensive strategy or sense of urgency in dealing with it. The President must consider the United States' vital national interests and confront this situation before it escalates any further," he said in a statement provided by his staff.

Would he support boots on the ground?

"As someone who has been in those boots, Tom would think that question is extremely premature," his spokesman Caroline Rabbitt said. "There are a range of tools at the president's disposal, and Tom will wait to hear a plan before commenting on any specifics."

U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., said he is anxious to hear the president's plan. The former Army National Guard colonel said the country needs to consider what support it provides to Iraqi security forces and how the Iraqi government can defuse sectarian violence.

"We urgently need a realistic plan from President Obama to ensure Congress and the American people that all of the American blood shed for the Iraqis will not have been shed in vain," he said in a statement.

The staff for U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., a former U.S. Army bomb-disposal technician, said the Jonesboro Republican hopes the president will let Congress know of his plans soon.

"[Crawford has] long said that leaving Iraq without a status-of-force agreement was a very bad policy decision and would come back one day to be a problem. We are starting to see the results of that now," said his chief of staff, Jonah Shumate.

U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., said the first priority needs to be American citizens in the area.

"The conflicts across the Middle East are rapidly spiraling into a Sunni-Shia civil war, which will have devastating effects for the region, not to mention the chaos it will cause in the energy market," he said.

Boozman said he expects military commanders in the region will design the plan.

"The one thing we learned from Vietnam is that we don't micromanage wars from Washington. But the bottom line is we need to act quickly, as [the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] isn't slowing down."

U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., said that U.S. military action alone can't solve the problem.

"At great sacrifice to our troops and their families, the United States has equipped and trained the Iraqi government to stand on its own. The Iraqi government must be willing to make the political reforms necessary to forge an inclusive democracy. To date, they have not been willing to do this," he said in a statement.

"If we are going to take military action to help stabilize the country, it must be in response to a clear and compelling national security threat and should be done in consultation with our allies, military leaders, intelligence community and both houses of Congress."

A Section on 06/14/2014

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