Is Mitch McConnell the most reprehensible officeholder in national politics? On last Sunday's "This Week," George Stephanopoulos asked the Senate Majority Leader if he would, as Speaker Paul Ryan has said he might do in the House of Representatives, schedule a vote to give President Obama new authority to fight ISIL. McConnell responded (video below) in part
But I don't want to tie the hands of the next president. The next president may want to actually defeat ISIL. And I think an AUMF, an authorization to use military force, that ties the president's hands behind his back is not something I would want to do to a new president who's going to have to clean up this mess, created by all of this passivity over the last eight years.
As of early December, the USA Air Force, under the Commander-in-Chef who wants to welcome ISIL into Kentucky, had
fired off more than 20,000 missiles and bombs since the U.S. bombing campaign against ISIS began 15 months ago, according to the Air Force, leading to depleted munitions stockpiles and calls to ramp up funding and weapons production.
As the U.S. ramps up its campaign against the Islamist terror group in Iraq and Syria, the Air Force is now "expending munitions faster than we can replenish them," Air Force chief of staff Gen. Mark Welsh said in a statement.
"B-1s have dropped bombs in record numbers. F-15Es are in the fight because they are able to employ a wide range of weapons and do so with great flexibility. We need the funding in place to ensure we're prepared for the long fight," Welsh said in the statement. "This is a critical need."
The bombing campaign has left the U.S. Air Force with what an Air Force official described as munitions depot stocks "below our desired objective."
One can only imagine how many missiles and bombs would have been dropped under this Administration if the President really wanted to eliminate ISIL. Would it have been 40,000? 80,000? A quarter million?
Mitch McConnell hasn't said. Neither has the man who really is the most reprehensible character in the federal government.
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