The senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee is pushing legislation authorizing the president to use military force against Islamic state militants in Iraq, Syria and wherever else they threaten U.S. interests. Sen. Jim Inhofe is circulating a draft of a resolution granting the president the authority to “use all necessary and appropriate force in order to defend the national security of the United States against the threat posed by the organization called the Islamic State or ‘IS, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, as well as any successor organization.”
The measure, which has no end date, would allow President Barack Obama to deploy ground forces as well as continue with airstrikes against the militants who have seized swaths of Iraq, threaten the government and killed two American journalists inside Syria.
Inhofe is seeking bipartisan support for his measure as Congress returns to Washington next week from its five-week break. The resolution also forces the president to submit a strategy to Congress within 60 days for how to defeat the Islamic State group. (Source: AP, Washington, 5 Sep 2014)