Our World is a Dangerous Place

Statement

Every day we are reminded that the world is still a dangerous place. President Obama has weakened America's leadership and abdicated our responsibility in the world, and we see the dangerous results all too clearly. Russian President Vladimir Putin is emboldened; Chinese cyber attacks threaten our corporate and governmental data; the terror group Boko Haram is running rampant in Africa; Iran and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, known as ISIL, are filling the vacuum created by the absence of U.S. leadership in the Middle East.

Yet, President Obama continues his strategy of breaking down our military might and leading from behind. Now he's planning to close Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

After Ukraine turned over weapons of mass destruction amid Russian aggression and an escalating conflict, the United States did nothing to help them and Russia took advantage of the vacuum. In Syria, after President Obama drew a red line in 2013 that was crossed over and over again by Syrian president Assad without consequence; Russia again took advantage.

We are not exercising the will to make the right things happen. We are not exerting the leadership that our citizens and the peace-loving world expect from the United States of America.

ISIL also is taking advantage of our weakened foreign policy. The Commanding General of U.S. Army Forces Command, General Robert B. Abrams, has explained that a "long term strategy" means an eight- to 15-year time period before ISIL is finally worn down. During the proposed extended period of conflict, we are likely to watch as thousands of innocent people will be killed or murdered and hundreds of American troops may die at the hands of radical Islamic terrorists.

A containment policy is not only foolish, but impossible. If somebody is willing to kill himself in order to kill you or burn you in a cage on the courthouse steps without a trial, the only way to defeat them is to kill them before they can kill you. You can't negotiate with such people. You can't accommodate them. You can't contain them. You have to kill them.

Our president, with the support of his Democratic party, has cut our military to levels that will soon be as low as they were before World War II.

As a veteran of the Georgia Air National Guard, I know that air attacks work when carried out in concert with a specific strategy involving all military resources, but air attacks that have no specific strategy and no support from the ground do not work. We have to have a comprehensive and realistic military approach in the Middle East to effectively go after and destroy ISIL.

Until we put the troops on the ground that are necessary to carry out a coordinated attack against ISIL, this terrorist group is going to continue to grow. And if we don't secure our borders, ISIL will take advantage of our generosity. That's why as your senator, I've fought for swift and decisive action to ensure we have a smarter strategy in place to keep radical jihadists out of the United States.

The world is a dangerous place, and we need serious leaders who will listen to our military experts and give them the support they need to carry out the mission of eliminating ISIL off the face of the earth.

As long as I am in Congress, I am going to work to give our military, our State Department and our foreign services the manpower, the money and the personnel to carry out any mission that we take on. I will fight to prevent the closure of Guantanamo Bay. I will do everything in my power to protect our country, our families and our state, and to restore our nation to that "shining city upon a hill' that is a beacon for all.

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