Democratic lawmakers rallied Thursday behind President Obama’s strategy to destroy the terrorist army known as Islamic State, but also pressed for more details that would better assure them the plan will succeed.
“I’ve never seen the president this resolved. I felt good about that,” Sen. Joseph Manchin III, West Virginia Democrat and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”
Mr. Manchin said he liked the four-point plan that Mr. Obama laid out but looked forward to an upcoming briefing to get more specifics.
Mr. Obama’s plan includes more airstrikes, sending 475 more military advisers to Iraq, arming the moderate Syrian opposition forces and building a coalition of nations to help fight the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS.
Mr. Manchin worried that Arab states wouldn’t join the fight and the Syrian rebels might someday turn against the U.S.
“I want to see who the coalition is. Are the other Arab nations, the neighbors in that area … are they going to be committed, are they as concerned as we are,” he said. “They should be. It’s in their backyard. This is not just a war on Westerners or a war on Christians, this is a war on humanity, and I would hope everyone would have the same concerns we have.”
He also questioned the wisdom of equipping the Syrian rebels, who Mr. Obama dismissed last month as a bunch of former doctors, farmers and pharmacists.
“The bottom line is, the only thing I know, is every time we try to arm people who we think are the friendlies over there, they end up using it against us — those arms are used against us. So I’m very concerned,” Mr. Manchin said.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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