Iowa’s senators want stepped-up effort to counter ISIS threat

DES MOINES - Iowa's two Republican U.S. senators Monday urged President Obama to seek a bipartisan strategy in concert with military advisers and American allies to aggressively defeat and destroy terrorist threats in international hot spots.

'We need to figure out how we're going to destroy ISIS - not contain it, not degrade it, but we need to destroy it,” said Sen. Joni Ernst, a Red Oak Republican who previously led an Iowa Army National Guard company in Kuwait and Iraq.

The president has been criticized for not aggressively escalating military operations in response to the terrorist attacks while focusing attention on the plight of Syria refugees. He started this week by emphasizing the strength of the international coalition committed to fighting ISIS and its efforts to destroy the network through a carefully executed air campaign.

In separate interviews, Ernst said building an effective coalition may require an expansion of U.S. ground troops with congressional approval, although Grassley believed the president already has the authority to commit more U.S. soldiers to the fight against ISIS and other terrorist groups under Congress' 2002 resolution.

'We really have to take it to ISIS and just strictly using air campaigns is not going to win this war,” Ernst said one day before Obama was slated to meet with French President Francois Hollande at the White House to discuss the military campaign against ISIS in response to the terrorist attacks in Paris.

'There are a lot of partners right now that want to engage, but they want to know that the United States is going to be there for them,” Ernst said, 'so we have to start those discussions. We need to talk about this in an open way that we admit the strategy that we have right now is not working.”

Grassley said he did not want to see a new debate in Congress that could stall efforts by Obama to move ahead as commander in chief in consultation with top military experts on what needs to be done 'because, obviously, if you're in a war, you're only in a war to win.”

The constitution gives the president broad powers as commander in chief, but Grassley said some lawmakers question whether he has used them adequately to meet the current international threat.

'I think the view is that the president is very timid about what's going on in the Middle East and that his timidity is part of the problem - that people in that part of the world think that the United States' heart isn't into it, so they can do almost anything they want to do,” he said. 'That's why you've seen France and Russia taking such a lead filling the vacuum that normally would be filled by the United States.”

Ernst said a bipartisan starting point would be a focus on protecting the safety of Americans and the U.S. homeland by stamping out a threat overseas before would-be attackers would have an opportunity to attack.

'I think we need to work with the president,” she said, 'but I think the president needs to open his ears, open his mind and have some very tough discussions with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, his senior military subject matter experts. That's what he needs to do. We need to get this figured out, but we need to work together in a cohesive manner so that our allies understand that we will be there for them should they join our coalition.”

The two senators were in Des Moines to participate in a discussion of agriculture and renewable-energy issues as they related to Iowa's leadoff role in the 2016 presidential selection process with its Feb. 1 precinct caucuses.

Both senators supported the Trans-Pacific Trade deal as a way to strengthen U.S. trade in a key region of the world and pushed for federal support for the Renewable Fuel Standard and production tax credits that have enabled Iowa to take a lead role in alternative energy innovations and jobs.

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