PARIS, France – In an interview today on CNN, U.S. Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the U.S. must make a decision to lead in the fight against ISIS and warned that if the Obama administration continues its strategy of containment in Syria, the world will continue to see unrest and terrorist activities.
“As long as our strategy in Syria is containment, more and more and more of [these terrorist activities are] going to occur,” said Corker. “I think people are waking up to that… I think everyone understands that collectively we’ve got to do something far more robust.”
Corker continued: “I think the first decision that has to be made is: Are we, as the United States, going to take part, are we going to lead a coalition to actually end [ISIS’s] existence? Or are we going to just deal with the containment [strategy] that we have been doing? It is really an executive decision first. And then once that decision is made, it is collecting from our great military leaders the best way to go about doing that. We as a nation really haven’t made the decision yet, in my opinion, that we want to destroy them. It has been a decision to contain.”
Asked if U.S. leadership is critical, Corker added: “Absolutely… With something like this, the only way for it to be successful is with U.S. leadership.”
On his way to the Middle East, Senator Corker stopped in Paris on Friday to discuss the response to the recent terrorist attacks and U.S. cooperation with France in the fight against ISIS. He will receive a briefing at the U.S. embassy, meet with FBI and French officials, and lay a wreath at one of the sites of the attacks, the Le Carillon restaurant, to commemorate the victims. In the Middle East, he will meet with U.S. and foreign officials about regional security and stability issues, especially terrorism.
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