Obama Won’t Rule Out Airstrikes to Aid Iraq’s Army

By Margaret Talev and David Lerman Jun 12, 2014 4:16 PM ET

President Barack Obama said he won’t rule out using air strikes to help Iraq’s government beat back Islamic militants who’ve seized major cities and threaten to ignite a sectarian civil war.

“I don’t rule out anything,” Obama said today when asked whether the U.S. was willing conduct drone strikes or take other action against the jihadists. Iraq “clearly is an emergency situation” and the government there needs more help.

Any move by Obama to intervene in Iraq would hit opposition in Congress. While some lawmakers were pressing for the U.S. to act, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Representative Howard “Buck” McKeon, said he would oppose funding any military action. His counterpart in the Senate, Democratic Senator Carl Levin, said he was skeptical that air strikes made sense.

Three years after the U.S. and other members of an international coalition withdrew forces from Iraq, the army of the Shiite-led government has collapsed when confronted by the radical Sunni forces that have swept through northern Iraq, threatening the stability of OPEC’s second-biggest oil producer.



“I don’t rule out anything because we do have a stake in making sure that these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold in either Iraq, or Syria, for that matter,” Obama said after a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott at the White House.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-12/obama-won-t-rule-out-airstrikes-to-aid-iraq-s-army.html