GOP Lawmakers Call for Airstrikes on Iraq to Counter ISIS Threat

Press Release

Republican lawmakers called Sunday for U.S. airstrikes in Iraq to counter this week's insurgent offensive led by a militant Islamic group once allied with Al Qaeda.

The extremist Sunni Muslim group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, otherwise known as ISIS, captured two major cities in Iraq last week and is heading toward Baghdad. On Sunday, militants posted pictures on social media it claimed showed a massacre of thousands of captured Iraqi soldiers.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R--S.C.) said on CNN's State of the Union that he supports the use of airstrikes to stop the group's expansion and that Syria and Iraq will become "the staging area for the next 9/11 if action isn't taken.

"If Baghdad falls, if the central government falls, a disaster awaits us of monumental proportions," he said.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) sided with Graham, calling the rise of ISIS the "worst-case scenario" for the U.S. He also said airstrikes were necessary to halt the insurgents' activity during his State of the Union appearance, as a first step.

"I don't think [airstrikes are] necessarily the panacea." Kinzinger said. "The U.S. military is not some weak animal…and we have got to go in there. Work on a political solution with Iraq and push back this very evil organization, ISIS, and give some breathing space to the Iraqi government to do what it needs to do."

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