WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) today questioned Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey about the Obama Administration’s counter-ISIL strategy during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

“Terrorist groups like ISIL are rich and growing while President Obama runs out the clock on his time in office,” said Graham. “President Obama states ISIS must now be turned back and Syria’s Bashar al Assad must go. But he has no strategy for achieving these goals. His recent announcement of additional troops amounts to nothing more than duct tape, a desperate attempt to hold together a crumbling Middle East just long enough for his successor to step in.”

WATCH/LISTEN:

GRAHAM: “General Dempsey, would you agree that there are more terrorist organizations with more safe havens, with more weapons, with more capability, with more men to strike the homeland than any time since 9/11?”
GENERAL DEMPSEY: “Yes.”
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GRAHAM: “Do you believe that ISIL is expanding in other countries as we speak?”
GENERAL DEMPSEY: “Yes.”
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GRAHAM: “What’s more likely – President Obama leaves office in 2017 or Assad goes first?”
SECRETARY CARTER: “Well, I certainly hope it’s Assad.”
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