U.S. Sen. Bob Corker speaks Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014, to Chattanooga Times Free Press staff in Chattanooga, Tenn.A day after the ISIS extremist group released a filmed execution of an American journalist, U.S. Sen. Bob Corker blamed ineffective U.S. foreign policy for helping create a power vacuum in Syria and Iraq and said President Barack Obama needs a clear objective in the Middle East.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria on Tuesday posted an Internet video of a masked man using a knife to cut off the head of American journalist James Foley, who was captured in Syria in November 2012. The group also threatened to kill freelance journalist Steven Sotloff, who has been missing for a year.
Corker, Tennessee’s junior senator and a former Chattanooga mayor, is the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He said the Obama administration needs an objective — and that any plan the president comes up with should “cause ISIS to not exist.”
Speaking with Times Free Press editors and reporters Wednesday, Corker said U.S. humanitarian aid in the region should continue, but Americans also should offer support to the Iraqi military in the form of airstrikes and drone attacks.
But he stopped short of saying American troops should be redeployed to the region. He said the “best-case scenario” is for the Iraqi military and Kurdish forces to band together and fight off invading militants spilling into Iraq from Syria.