A Misguided Effort Against Islamic State | J. Dana Stuster

A Misguided Effort Against Islamic State

By J. Dana Stuster, NSN Policy Analyst
March 2, 2015 |  LA Times

Since President Obama asked Congress in February for a new Authorization for Use of Military Force against Islamic State, the proposal has been under attack by hawkish members of Congress. “My goal is to do no harm to the war effort,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said recently. “The harm is to embrace a strategy with no chance of success.”

He’s right — and that’s precisely why the use-of-force prescriptions Graham and others are advocating are so misguided.

Congressional hawks are pushing for expansive executive war powers. Though they have not offered their own comprehensive strategy, interventionists such as Graham and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) are calling for Obama — and his successor — to be able to wage another American war of choice in the Middle East.

J. Dana Stuster is a policy analyst at the National Security Network and coauthor of the report “Confronting the Islamic State: An Assessment of U.S. Strategic Options.”

To continue reading, click here. 

 

Photo Credit: Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) [U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. John Orrell, 3/3/11]